
Q&Y^i/S 



62d Congre 
3d Session 



'^^1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES I ^xr'^^'fil?'^ 

I ) (_ No. 1474 



GEORGE WASHINGTON GORDON 

( Late a Representative from Tennessee ) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

SIXTY-SECOND CONGRESS 



/Si- 



Proceedings in the House 
May 12, 1912 



Proceedings in the Senate 
August 10, 1911 



PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OP 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 



1^^ 



WASHINGTON 
1913 




.1 



D. OF D. 

OCT 31 1918 



rv" 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

Proceedings in the House 5 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 5, 8 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 11 

^r. Byrns, of Tennessee 21 

Mr. Kahn, of California 26 

Mr. Stephens, of Mississippi 28 

Mr. Thistlewood, of Illinois 31 

Mr. Slayden, of Texas 33 

Mr. Tilson, of Connecticut 38 

Mr. Houston, of Tennessee 40 

Mr. Austin, of Tennessee 43 

Mr. Garrett, of Tennessee 45 

Mr. Hull, of Tennessee 51 

Mr. McKellar, of Tennessee 54 

Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 61 

Mr. Sims, of Tennessee 65 

Proceedings in the Senate 81 

Address by Judge L. B. McFarland 69 

Tributes from — 

Mr. Taylor, of Tennessee 84 

Mr. Garrett, of Tennessee 84 

Mr. Williams, of Mississippi 85 

Mr. Macon, of Arkansas 86 

Gen. C. Irvine Walker, lieutenant general com- 
manding, the United Confederate Veterans 86 

Former Gov. M. R. Patterson at the memorial 

services of the Memphis Lodge of Elks 88 

Funeral services 91 

" Sentiment," an editorial from the Commercial Appeal, 

of Memphis, Tenn 95 



[3] 




HON- GECRGS W. GORDON. 



DEATH OF HON. GEORGE WASHINGTON GORDON 



Proceedings in the House 

Thursday, August 10, 1911. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, the Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., deliv- 
ered the following prayer : 

We rejoice, O God, our heavenly Father, that Thy foot- 
steps may be traced by those who have eyes to see; that 
the works of Thy hands speak eloquently to those who 
have ears to hear; that the pulsations of Thy heart may 
be felt by those who have hearts to feel; that no night of 
sorrow can obscure Thy presence from those who put 
their trust in Thee. Once more called upon to mourn 
the loss of a faithful and valuable Member of this House, 
we pray that those who knew and loved him, especially 
those who were bound to him by the ties of kinship, may 
be comforted by the thought that, his work fulfilled here. 
Thou hast called him to a larger life of usefulness, and 
though he may not return to them they shall surely go 
to him, in Thine own good time, to part no more forever. 
For this blessed faith and precious hope, we praise Thy 
holy name, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. 

• • • • • 

Mr. Sims. Mr. Speaker, it is with profound sorrow that 
the delegation from the State of Tennessee has learned 
of the death of Hon. George W. Gordon, one of our dis- 
tinguished colleagues. 



[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

At a later day I will ask the House to set apart a time 
to commemorate by proper exercises his life, character, 
and public services. At this time I offer the resolution 
vi^hich I send to the Clerk's desk, and ask for present con- 
sideration of the same. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the resolution. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

House resolution 274 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. George W. Gordon, a Representative from the 
State of Tennessee. 

Resolved, That a committee of 18 Members of the House, with 
such Members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to 
attend the funeral. 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be author- 
ized and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for 
carrying out the provisions of these resolutions, and that the 
necessary expenses in connection therewith be paid out of the 
contingent fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the de- 
ceased. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the resolu- 
tions. 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were 
unanimously agreed to. 

The Speaker announced the following committee on 
the part of the House : 

Mr. Richardson, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Taylor of Alabama, 
Mr. Cravens, Mr. Padgett, Mr. Houston, Mr. Garrett, Mr. 
Hull, Mr. Ryrns of Tennessee, Mr. Austin, Mr. Sells, Mr. 
Prince, Mr. Thistlewood, Mr. Tilson, Mr. Kahn, Mr. Brad- 
ley, Mr. Anthony, and Mr. Slemp. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the additional reso- 
lution. 



[6] 



Proceedings in the House 



The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect, this House do 
now adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on the adoption of the 
resolution. 

The resolution was agreed to; thereupon (at 1 o'clock 
and 31 minutes p. m.) the House adjourned until to-mor- 
row, Friday, August 11, 1911, at 12 o'clock noon. 



Saturday, April IS, 1912. 

Mr. McKellar. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
for the present consideration of the order which I send 
to the Clerk's desk. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the order. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Ordered, That there be a session of the House at 12 m. on 
Sunday, May 12, 1912, for the delivery of eulogies on the life, 
character, and public services of the Hon. George Washington 
Gordon, late a Member of this House from the tenth congressional 
district of Tennessee. 

The Speaker. Is there objection to the present consid- 
eration of the order? [After a pause.] The Chair hears 
none. 

The question is on agreeing to the order. 

The question was taken, and the order was agreed to. 



[7] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

Sunday, May 12, 1912. 

The House met at 12 o'clock noon, and was called to 
order by the Speaker pro tempore [Mr, Sims]. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered 
the following prayer : 

O Lovel O Life! our faith and sight 

Thy presence maketh one; 
As through transfigured clouds of white 

We trace the noonday sun. 

So, to our mortal eyes subdued, 

Flesh-veiled, but not concealed, 
We know in Thee the fatherhood 

And heart of God revealed. 

Blessed faith, hope, and love which Thou hast woven 
into the tissues of our being, which holds us close to Thee 
in joys or sorrows, in life or death. We know that the 
body dies but the spirit which animated it lives in some 
higher realm where its longings, hopes, and aspirations 
will be fulfilled. " For none of us liveth to himself, and 
no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live 
unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the 
Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. 
For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, 
that He might be Lord both of the dead and living." We 
thank Thee for the strong, pure, noble, brave character 
possessed by the Member in whose memory we are 
assembled. Quick to perceive, strong in action, whether 
on the field of battle or in the quiet, peaceful pursuits of 
life, he fulfilled to a conspicuous degree the expectations 
of those who called him to service in State or Nation. 

His work well done, the angel of death bore him to a 
higher service. The work of a true man lives after him, 
for nothing pure, nothing sublime can perish. Comfort, 
we beseech Thee, his colleagues and friends, and the 

[8] 



Proceedings in the House 



dear wife who kept close to his side and shared his joys 
and sorrows, victories and defeats; and bring her in 
Thine own time to dwell with him in love forever. And 
Thine be the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will read the 
Journal of the proceedings of yesterday. 

Mr. McKellar. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that the reading of the Journal be dispensed with. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman from Ten- 
nessee asks unanimous consent that the reading of the 
Journal be dispensed with. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 

The Journal was approved. 

Mr. McICellar. Mr. Speaker, I offer the following reso- 
lution. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

House resolution 535 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 
Hon. George Washington Gordon, late a Member of this House 
from the State of Tennessee. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career the House, at the conclusion of these exercises, shall 
stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 



[9] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 

Mr. Speaker : I knew Gen. Gordon well. We both came 
into the Sixtieth Congress, having been elected in 1906. 
I boarded with him at the same hotel and sat with him 
and his good wife at the same table during the first 
session of that Congress. I was associated with him for 
four years in the Committee on Military Affairs, and 
perhaps knew him as well and as intimately as any Mem- 
ber outside of his own State. 

As a preliminary, allow me to say that the war in which 
Gen. Gordon was engaged was the most remarkable war 
in all history. There is nothing to compare with it in 
intensity and desperation. It was the longest enduring 
war of modern times, and the fiercest and bloodiest bat- 
tles in all history were fought during the four years of 
its continuance. During the war of the American Revo- 
lution, which lasted for 7 years, only 7 battles were fought 
per year. But 49 battles were fought during the entire 
war. In the Civil War over 2,000 battles were fought, 
and in 882 battles more were killed and wounded than 
in the bloodiest battle of the American Revolution — the 
Battle of the Brandywine. 

There is another peculiarity about the Civil War that 
attaches to no other war: It was the only war in all 
history where the soldiers on both sides sang patriotic 
and heroic songs on the march and around the bivouac 
fires at night. During the whole of the war of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, lasting seven years, there was not a 
patriotic song written. The nearest they came to it was 

[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

Yankee Doodle, the words of which are silly and without 
patriotic import, but the music was well adapted to the 
fife and drum. 

In the War of 1812 there was not a patriotic song writ- 
ten or sung by our soldiers. The Star-Spangled Banner, 
by Francis Scott Key, in 1814, was written near the close 
of the war. He was on a British man-of-war and saw the 
bombardment of Fort Henry at night and saw through 
the night that " our flag was still there." This grand 
national anthem was set to music and first sung by a 
Scotch actor, Ferdinand Durang, in a Baltimore theater. 
The music of the Star-Spangled Banner was from 
" Anacreon in Heaven," a melody written by John Staf- 
ford Smith, of London, England, in 1773. But in our 
Civil War, on both sides of the battle line, over 100 war 
songs were inspired that were sung by our soldiers. One 
of the grandest lyrics of the war on the southern side was 
written by James R. Randall, of Maryland. He was but 
a stripling boy, almost, when he wrote it, although he 
had graduated at a Maryland college and was at the time 
a professor of a Louisiana college. He wrote that song 
to induce his State to secede from the Union. I first heard 
that song down on the Holstein River, in east Tennessee, 
about 20 miles south of Knoxville. It was our first day 
in from over the Cumberland Mountains, and I was 
ordered to place a picket line around our camp from 
right to left, resting on the river. 

Just as I was placing the picket line upon the left, by 
the road that ran along the river, I heard a sweet voice 
singing : 

The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland! 

His touch is at thy temple door, Maryland 1 

Avenge the patriotic gore 

That flecked the streets of Baltimore, 

And be the battle queen of yore, 

Oh, Maryland, my Maryland! 

[12] 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 



I had not heard a woman's voice in song for over a 
year. I looked down into the thicket and caught a glimpse 
of a cottage by the riverside and saw a girl at a piano. 
Just then there was a picket shot on the line, and I heard 
the clang of a saber, followed by the rattling of hoofs. 
The captain of a small force of Confederate scouts gal- 
loped out into the darkness. The song stopped at a semi- 
colon, and I never heard the last of it until our camp was 
at Salisbury, N. C, after the war was over, and I never 
knew who wrote it until then. 

Another song, one of the most thrilling dramatic poems 
of the entire war, was by Father Ryan, of Mobile, Ala., 
who was the chaplain of an Alabama regiment. He wrote 
that poem the day after Lee's surrender. He was upon 
a bed of sickness and racked with fever, but he wrote 
that saddest of all war lyrics in a single hour. I saw it 
first in a paper printed at Salisbury on old brown paper, 
the only paper the Confederates had, at the close of the 
war. It was claimed by half a dozen song writers in the 
South. I never knew who wrote it until I purchased a 
copy of Father Ryan's poems, published in Baltimore 20 
years after the war. I quote from memory a couplet from 
that song : 

Furl that banner, for it's weary; 
Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary. 

Furl it, fold it, it is best, 
For there's not a man to wave it, 
And there's no one left to lave it 
In the blood which heroes gave it. 

Furl it, hide it, let it rest! 

Gen. George W. Gordon was the peer of any officer who 
ever drew a sword along a battle line. He was in the 
midst of the fray at Missionary Ridge and the two days' 
terrible combat at Chickamauga. He was in all that 110 
days' campaign of constant skirmish and battle from 



[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

Rocky Pace Mountain to Atlanta, including 20 desperate 
battles. 

Franklin was Gen. Gordon's last battle, and Franklin 
was the fiercest, the bloodiest, and the most signal battle 
of the entire war. The war histories tell us more of 
Nashville, a 2 days' battle 15 days later, but Nashville was 
a dress parade compared with Franklin. I was at the 
front in both battles. Gen. Gordon was a brigadier gen- 
eral in command of a brigade at Franklin, and he was 
abreast of the front line of bayonets in that mad, wild, 
desperate charge. He was wounded and captured on the 
Federal breastworks. In the books of war the place for 
a brigadier general is in the center and rear of his brigade, 
but Gen. Gordon was a chivalric knight with flaming 
sword leading that line of gleaming bayonets. 

In Col. Wilson J. Vance's war history I find the follow- 
ing paragraph on the Rattle of Franklin : 

There was greater loss, greater sacrifice, and more bloody 
fighting on the part of old Frank Cheatham's men on that beauti- 
ful Wednesday eve, November 30, 1864, than took place on any 
field of the Crimean War. While 37 per cent of Lord Cardigan's 
673 men were killed or wounded in the memorable charge of the 
600 at Balaklava, more than half of Gen. Cleburne's and Brown's 
divisions were left dead or wounded in the fields and gardens 
of that little Tennessee town. 

That brilliant Tennessee journalist and poet and his- 
torian, John Trotwood Moore, in his new book, entitled 
"The Rishop of Cotton Town," gives a chapter on the 
Rattle of Franklin. John Trotwood Moore was there. 
He was too young a half century ago for a soldier, but 
from a hill overlooking the lovely valley where the cold 
steel of the Rlue and the Gray clashed for six terrible 
hours, he saw this historic conflict, the most desperate of 
all the centuries. 



[14] 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 



And of all the descriptions of that contest from the 
Confederate side his depiction is the most realistic and 
dramatic. Let me quote from John Trotwood Moore on 
the opening of the battle: 

There stands to-day, as it stood then, in front of the town of 
Franklin, on the highest point of the ridge, a large linden tree, 
now showing the effects of age. It was half past 3 in the after- 
noon of November 30, 1864, when Gen. Hood rode unattended to 
that tree, threw the stump of the leg that was shot off at Chicka- 
niauga over the pommel of his saddle, drew out his field glass, 
and sat looking across the valley at the position of the enemy. 
It was the silence that always precedes a great battle. Presently 
the silence was broken by the soft strains of music which floated 
up from the town below. It was the Federal band playing " Just 
before the battle, mother." The men in gray on the hill and the 
men in blue in the valley below listened. There were tears in 
many eyes, as the pathetic words were well remembered — 

" Just before the battle, mother, 
I am thinking most of you." 

I was at Franklin, on the Union side, and I saw and 
heard it all from an advanced position near the center of 
the Federal line. I saw and heard it all — all that a sol- 
dier can see and hear amid the glare, the thunderous roar, 
the stifling battle smoke, the yells of the victors, the 
agonizing groans of the wounded and dying. I remem- 
ber the scene just before the battle, as described by John 
Trotwood Moore; I see it now as I saw it then — a lovely 
valley basking in the mellow glory of November sunshine. 
I see the little town of Franklin, quiet yet restless, just 
inside the circle of the Federal lines. These lines 
extended from river to river. There were orchards and 
meadows and gardens and meandering brooks that shone 
in the sunlight like threads of silver. There were patches 
of woodland in the rich foliage of the autumn leaves, in 
scarlet, gold, and green, tinged with the early frosts to 
gladden and glorify their fall. 

[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

What a pathetic picture to soothe the homesick heart 
of the tired soldier, sick of war and its ghastly carnage. 
Here was Gen. Pat Cleburne, the soldier whose veteran 
brigade of stalwart veterans had, in the retreat from 
Chickamauga, checked the whole Federal Army at Ring- 
gold Gap. Gen. Cleburne expressed a wish that should 
he die in battle it should be in this lovely valley. It was 
a prophetic wish, for only five hours later he and 13 other 
general field officers yielded up their lives around the 
bloody battle lines of Franklin. I shall not attempt to 
tell of the awful struggle at Franklin, only to give some 
battle memories that came into my life on that terrible 
afternoon. 

I was speaking of Gen. Hood, the commanding gen- 
eral, who sat on his horse under the linden tree taking 
a survey of the Federal lines. Suddenly he closed his 
field glasses, wheeled his horse, and rode back to Gen. 
Stewart, with the command, " General, we will charge 
the Federal line of battle in front." Stewart formed his 
corps on the right. Gen. Cheatham formed his corps on 
the left. A cannon on the ridge sounded the signal for 
the charge. With bayonets fixed, the heavy columns, all 
veterans, marched with a steady and even tread down 
the slope. The fiercest and bloodiest battle of the cen- 
turies was on. Gen. Forrest's cavalry on the extreme 
right rested on the Harpeth River. 

In 1874 a southern soldier, who was in that battle line 
with Gen. Cleburne, wrote a valuable article on this 
marvelous charge in the Southern Magazine, then edited 
by Gen. Bazil Duke, of Louisville. I quote a paragraph : 

The hottest part of the line was a black-locust thicket just at 
the right of the Columbia Pike. 

This is correct; I was at that part of the line. I have 
a distinct recollection of that locust thicket, and I can see 
now, as I saw then, that waving line of shining bayonets 

[16] 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 



as it rushed to the works with that defiant rebel yell, 
and the mad and murderous conflict that followed. On 
the left of my command the Federal lines gave way. 
Gen. Cleburne was abreast of that charging line. He fell 
just at the left of my regiment. John Trotwood Moore, 
in depicting this furious charge, says : 

As they rushed on the Federal line of battle a gray figure on a 
chestnut horse rode diagonally across the front of the charging 
column. The horse went down within 50 yards of the breast- 
works. The rider arose, waved his sword, and led his men on 
foot to the ramparts, then his brave form staggered and fell 
against the Federal line, pierced with minie balls. His corps was 
swept back under a terrific fire of musketry, nearly one-half 
either killed or wounded. 

A few yards on the Confederate right Gen. Gordon, who 
was also abreast of the charging line, fell, just under the 
fresh earth of the breastworks. He was wounded and 
captured, as he refused to fall back. Near this spot Gen. 
Adams also fell. He stood upon the parapet and was 
fatally shot, his horse falling across the breastworks. 
My old friend, Gen. Jack Casement, of Ohio, was com- 
manding a Union brigade where Gen. Adams fell. Deeply 
touched with his splendid courage, Gen. Casement had 
cotton brought from the old ginhouse and placed under 
the dying soldier's head. " You are too brave a man to 
die," said Casement, " and I wish I could save you." Gen. 
Carter fell mortally wounded before reaching the Federal 
battle line. Gen. Stahl reached the ditch; he stood on the 
bodies of the dead and gave commands and rallied his 
men. 

Not a hundred yards away lay Gen. Granbury, dead. 
He died leading the brave Texans to the works. A minute 
more and Gen. Carter and Gen. Stahl fell, both mortally 
wounded. Twelve Confederate generals were either dead 
or wounded; colonels were commanding divisions, cap- 
tains were commanding brigades. More generals were 

93462°— 13 2 [17] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

killed in that six hours' struggle in front of that little 
Tennessee town than were killed in the two days' fight at 
Chickamauga, or the three days' fight at Gettysburg, 
where three times as many soldiers were in the hell of 
battle. 

The struggle closed at midnight — 

wrote Gen. Hood — 

when the enemy, under orders, fell back on Nashville. 

There were 47 Union dead, beside the wounded, in the 
little front yard of the Carter House alone, and they lay 
around the breastworks from river to river. Outside the 
breastworks in a wider line from river to river — a wider 
and thicker line — lay the Confederate dead. Amid the 
smoke and grime of battle, and under the dun clouds of 
battle smoke almost hiding the stars, the Blue and the 
Gray lines looked the same. I stood upon the parapet 
just before midnight and saw all that could be seen. I 
saw and heard all that my eyes could see, or my rent soul 
could contemplate in such an awful environment. 

It was a spectacle to appall the stoutest heart. A Nash- 
ville poet wrote : 

Ten thousand men, when the warfare was o'er. 
Lay on the battle field crimsoned in gore. 

The wounded, shivering in the chilled November air; 
the heart-rending cries of the desperately wounded, and 
the prayers of the dying, filled me with an anguish that 
no language can describe. From that hour to this I have 
hated war. I was colonel, commanding the One hundred 
and eleventh Ohio, just to the right of the old cotton gin, 
and just in front of that grove of black locusts, described 
by John Trotwood Moore. Early in the fight Col. Lowrey, 
of the One hundred and seventh Illinois, was killed, which 

[18] 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 



left me the ranking officer of the battle line of the brigade, 
which I commanded to the end of the battle. 

The well-known war correspondent Loomis, " writing " 
of this battle field, said : 

I have seen many battle fields, but never saw evidences of so 
terrible a conflict as I saw in front of the position of the One 
hundred and eleventh Ohio Infantry. I counted 12 locust trees 
in one cluster that were almost shot off" with musket balls. How 
men could be prevailed upon to charge and recharge against such 
a wall of fire I can not understand. 

The Nashville Times of December 3, three days after 
the battle, printed the following editorial : 

The One hundred and eleventh Ohio Infantry, Col. Sherwood 
commanding, was exposed to the shock of the fierce charges at 
Franklin, and stood firm with signal valor. Its losses were very 
severe. Of its officers, Lieuts. Bennett and Curtis were killed, 
Maj. McCord was severely wounded, Capts. Southworth and 
Dowling were very severely wounded, also Lieuts. Baker, Beery, 
and Kintigh. 

In officers and men my regiment suffered more fatali- 
ties than any regiment in the Union Army. Franklin was 
Gen. George W. Gordon's last battle. It was his last of 
over 30 battles, and in every one he was always at the 
front. 

As a soldier Gen. Gordon was the peer of any officer 
who wore the gray or who ever drew a sword along a 
battle line. 

As a bronzed and grizzled old soldier who fought on 
the other side, I esteem it an honor to be called upon 
to-day to pay my humble tribute to Gen. George W. 
Gordon, of heroic memory. None knew him well but to 
love him; none knew his record of civic achievements but 
to praise. In the beautiful cemetery at Memphis all that 
is mortal of our honored friend sleeps well. Every recur- 
ring year, with the birth of the glowing May, gentle hands 

[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

will scatter the choicest flowers over his grave in grateful 
recognition of his wholesome Christian life and in honor 
of his name and fame. And above the green sod where 
our hero sleeps the snowy magnolia will diff'use a sweeter 
balm, and the wild passion flower, winding its sweet ten- 
drils above the waving grasses, will gather tears beneath 
the stars and shed them in the sunlight. 

On Memorial Day in 1867 a patriotic group of splendid 
southern women, at Columbus, Miss., scattered flowers 
upon the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers alike. 
This was the inspiration for one of the finest poetic gems 
in the literature of patriotism. It is entitled "The Blue 
and the Gray," by Francis Miles Finch. I quote the last 
couplet : 

No more shall the war cry sever 

Or the winding rivers be red. 
They banish our anger forever, 

When they laurel the graves of our dead. 
Under the sod and the dew. 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Under the roses the Blue, 

Under the lilies the Gray. 



[20] 



Address of Mr. Byrns, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: It was my privilege to have known Gen. 
George W. Gordon personally but a little more than two 
years prior to his death, in August, 1911. I first met him 
when I entered Congress, in March, 1909, at which time 
he was just beginning his second term as the Representa- 
tive from the tenth congressional district of Tennessee, 
but, while I had known him for so short a time, it is a 
source of peculiar pride and great gratification to me 
that we became warm, personal friends. He was my good 
friend, a fact which he demonstrated in more than one 
instance, and I loved him dearly for his many noble quali- 
ties of mind and soul. 

Others have spoken and will speak, Mr. Speaker, of his 
activities and his accomplishments in life, of his long and 
highly honorable career in varied fields of endeavor and 
of usefulness to the community in which he lived, to his 
State, his beloved Southland, and his country. It is not 
my purpose, therefore, to do more than to briefly refer 
to the record of his life and his achievements. Its 
history shows that he was always gentle and kind, loyal 
and brave, faithful and true, whether as a private citizen, 
the superintendent of schools charged with the responsi- 
ble task of educating the youth of his splendid home city, 
the soldier and the general leading his troops in the very 
thickest of the fray on the field of battle, or as a national 
lawmaker commissioned by his people to represent them 
in the Halls of Congress. 

Gen. Gordon lived a long and useful life. He held at 
various times many important positions of honor and 

[21] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

responsibility. He filled all of them with credit and dis- 
tinction to himself and with entire satisfaction to those 
whom he served. He was very fond of referring to his 
service as superintendent of the city schools of Memphis, 
and was particularly proud of the friendship shown him 
by his former pupils, many of whom had reached the age 
of manhood and womanhood when he was first elected to 
Congress. The daily association and intimate relation- 
ship existing between schoolmaster and pupil affords the 
very best opportunity for forming a just and accurate 
estimate of each other's character. The young mind is 
not swayed by motives of jealousy, prejudice, or per- 
sonal interest, and while it is swift to detect a weakness 
it is equally quick to observe and give proper credit to 
the firm and strong character, and the impressions thus 
formed last throughout a lifetime. The pupils of the 
city schools of Memphis during Gen. Gordon's service 
as superintendent had every opportunity to know Gen. 
Gordon, and they loved him for his kindly and generous 
nature, his fidelity of purpose, his lofty character, and his 
sterling worth. I have heard him say, with evident pride, 
that his election to this body was due, in a large measure, 
to their personal friendship and devotion. 

But, Mr. Speaker, of all the positions held by him, he 
was by far most proud of the position of commander in 
chief of the United Confederate Veterans, a position to 
which he had been twice elected by his old comrades in 
arms, and which he held at the time of his death. He had 
enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private; he had 
endured the privations and shared all of the dangers of 
the Confederate soldier; step by step he had risen in rank 
until, by reason of his courage and gallantry on many a 
battle field, he was made a brigadier general in the 
service; and it would have been strange, indeed, if he 
had not considered his election as commander in chief 



[22] 



Address of Mr. Byrns, of Tennessee 

of the Confederate Veterans by his old comrades the 
crowning honor and glory of his life. And Mr. Speaker, 
his election was a just tribute to the man and the soldier. 
It was an honor well deserved, for he had shared the 
perils of the Confederate soldier and bared his breast to 
the storm of bullets in nearly every battle of the Georgia 
and Tennessee campaigns, including Murfreesboro, 
Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope 
Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, 
and at Franklin, where he led his men charging across the 
parapets of the Federal troops and into the very jaws 
of death. 

Gen. Gordon was fond of talking about the events of 
the Civil War, but the modesty of the man was such that 
he rarely referred to his own personal experiences, unless 
specifically asked to do so. Some time before his death 
I was present at a dinner at the home of Secretary of War 
Dickinson, when our host asked him to relate the part 
which he played in the fierce conflict at Franklin — the 
bloodiest battle of the Civil War. I recall how embar- 
rassed he seemed and how loath he was to speak of 
himself. I remember that he passed over his own heroic 
conduct in a few words, but dwelt at length on the 
heroism shown by his men, not forgetting to pay a gen- 
erous tribute to the courage and gallantry of their 
antagonists. 

He firmly believed in the righteousness of the cause for 
which he and his brave brethren of the South fought. He 
never surrendered his convictions that he and they were 
right. But there was no bitterness in his heart, nor did 
any feeling of disappointment linger in his breast. He 
cheerfully accepted the arbitrament of arms as the decree 
of God, and loved the flag which is at once the protection 
and the hope of our reunited and common country. He 
believed that the South was misunderstood. He felt that 



[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

history, as written, does not fully and faithfully record 
the events leading up to and the causes which brought 
about the War between the States, and he feared that 
future generations might misinterpret the true motives 
and purposes of the southern people and their leaders in 
withdrawing from the Union. In speaking of this to me, a 
short while before his death, he told me that he had for 
some time been gathering data and materials, and that 
he was contemplating retiring from Congress at the end 
of his term, in order to devote the last years of his life 
to writing a school history which would treat of the events 
that brought about the war from the standpoint of the 
South and would place before the young southern gen- 
erations of the future the true motives which actuated 
their forefathers. 

But, Mr. Speaker, it is truly said that " man proposes 
but God disposes." Gen. Gordon was not to be permitted 
to do this work in behalf of his beloved Southland as he 
had planned. Even as he talked of it the shadow of 
death was hovering over him, and it was but a few short 
months until he passed over the river, where he " rests 
under the shade " with Stonewall Jackson and the long 
line of heroes on both sides of that great war. 

One of the most striking characteristics of Gen. 
Gordon's life was his intense devotion to duty. I will 
always believe that this high sense of duty hastened his 
end. For nearly a year prior to his death his health was 
poor, and at times he was barely able to attend to his 
official duties. Representing a district having a com- 
bined city and country population, his work was always 
heavy, and notwithstanding his failing health and 
enfeebled condition, night after night found him at his 
desk attending to his correspondence and the other mani- 
fold duties which his position devolved upon him. It 
was this sense of duty, as well as the pleasure of renewing 

[24] 



Address of Mr. Byrns, of Tennessee 

associations with his old comrades, which carried him, in 
his enfeebled state of health, to the Confederate reunion 
at Little Rock in May, 1911. He became critically ill 
while there; but as soon as he was able to travel he jour- 
neyed back to Washington, where, during the sweltering 
days of June and July, he remained at his post of duty 
despite the entreaties of friends that he go to some health 
resort and try to recuperate his fast-failing strength. But 
he remained until sheer weakness forced him to leave, 
and it was but a few days thereafter when his colleagues 
learned that he had quietly passed away in his home at 
Memphis in the arms of his gentle and grief-stricken wife 
and surrounded by the friends he loved. On the occasion 
of his funeral many thousands of men, women, and chil- 
dren lined the streets along which passed the funeral 
cortege, in which the chief place of honor was given to 
the beloved survivors of those who wore the gray. Thou- 
sands followed the remains to Elmwood Cemetery, and 
there amid the luxuriant foliage and under nature's green 
covering the statesman, the soldier, and the citizen was 
laid away to rest until the final summons on resurrection 
morn. 

Who will deny, Mr. Speaker, that a life such as Gen. 
Gordon lived has its recompense, not only in this world 
but also in the great beyond? To those who were privi- 
leged to know him his life will serve as a shining example 
of all that is true and noble. The iinmortelles of memory, 
which fade not in a day like the flower culled from the 
garden, will cluster around his kind deeds and noble life 
until memory itself is no more. The growing plants, the 
budding trees, the blossoming flowers, and all creation 
tell us that the knightly soul of our departed friend and 
colleague is somewhere and somehow reaping the rich 
rewards of a well-spent life. 



[25] 



Address of Mr. Kahn, of California 

Mr. Speaker : I shall not attempt to detail the life work 
of our lamented colleague, Gen. George Washington 
Gordon. Those who knew him longer and better are 
qualified to perform that service in a much abler manner 
than I. My acquaintanceship with him began after his 
election to a seat in the House of Representatives in the 
Sixtieth Congress. He became a member of the Com- 
mittee on Military Affairs, and it was as a member of that 
committee that I learned to know and recognize his splen- 
did abilities as a legislator and to respect and esteem him 
highly as a man. 

He had been a soldier himself and had earned distin- 
guished honors in the Confederate Army. Like all truly 
brave and generous men, he never bore malice toward a 
valiant foe. As a member of the Committee on Military 
Affairs of this House he was frequently called upon to 
pass upon questions affecting men who had fought against 
him in the giant struggle between the States. In passing 
upon those questions he was always fair, just, broad- 
minded. There was nothing that savored of partisan- 
ship in his entire make-up. He was on all occasions and 
at all times the courtly, courteous gentleman; one of 
that dignified, polished type whom we love to designate 
as a gentleman of the old school. He was ever ready and 
willing to perform his whole duty with unswerving devo- 
tion to his immediate constituency, his State, and his 
country. The even-poised balance of justice was con- 
stantly his standard of righteousness in all his dealings 
with his fellow men. 



[26] 



Address of Mr. Kahn, of California 

The world is always better for the lives of such men as 
Gen. Gordon, for the force of good example at all times 
has a beneficial effect on all mankind. That his friends 
and neighbors loved, honored, and esteemed him in his 
lifetime and revered his memory in death was made 
abundantly manifest on the day of his interment. Thou- 
sands of his fellow citizens followed the funeral cortege to 
the beautiful Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, where all 
that was mortal of him sleeps the sleep everlasting. Still 
other thousands lined the streets through which the 
solemn procession wended its way. Northern veterans 
vied with southern veterans in paying their last sad 
tribute of affection to this quiet, kindly friend and neigh- 
bor — this modest yet steadfast tribune of the people. The 
grief was universal. There was scarcely a dry eye in all 
that multitude, and as though the heavens themselves had 
become affected by the genuine sorrow of those who knew 
and loved him best the gentle raindrops fell upon his 
grave as the casket in which he was laid to rest was for- 
ever covered up from mortal ken. 

Mr. Speaker, our lamented colleague has solved the 
great mystery of life and death. Himself a grand com- 
mander of men on this terrestrial globe, he has gone 
before the Celestial Grand Commander of the Universe 
and all is well with him, while to his bereaved family 
we say, " Be comforted, for surely ye will meet him again 
in the great hereafter." 



[27] 



Address of Mr. Stephens, of Mississippi 

Mr, Speaker: I desire to pay a brief tribute to the 
memory of Gen. Gordon, for whom I entertained great 
respect and esteem. 

At an early age he enlisted in the Confederate Army 
and made a record of gallantry on a dozen bloody battle 
fields of the Army of Tennessee. Entering the armj'^ as 
a private, he was promoted several times, and at the end 
of the war he was a brigadier general. 

He fought at Chickamauga, Murfreesboro, Missionary 
Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, 
Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Franklin. He was cap- 
tured at Franklin, where his men were the first of the 
Confederate Army to reach the parapet of the Federal 
works and pierce the enemy's line, and he was within 
those lines when made a prisoner. 

He took a very prominent part in that great battle. In 
describing it afterwards he said: "The booming of can- 
non, the bursting of bombs, the rattle of musketiy, the 
shrieking of shells, the whizzing of bullets, the shouting 
of hosts, and the falling of men in their struggle for 
victory, all made a scene of surpassing terror and awful 
grandeur." 

The war ended, he returned home to take up the duties 
of life. He bowed to the decree of war, probably feeling — 

So be it then! We may not say 
Whether this thing be worst or best, 
But God knows, let it rest. 
Yea, let it rest, and in our place 
Let each do well some worthy deed 



[28] 



Address of Mr. Stephens, of Mississippi 

Whereof the sickly world has some need. 
So much, no more, our hands can do. 
So much, then, let us do, and wait, 
Though bitter be the heart's debate. 

I doubt not that his life has been an inspiration, a 
benediction, to many a youth who knew him and came in 
contact with him. 

He was of the class who concern themselves with bene- 
fiting rather than condemning. 

He was one of those who do right with compelling 
insistence and are not even afraid that they may do 
wrong — a malady none too seldom found among those 
who are not sure of their approaches, who distrust them- 
selves and stand with reluctant feet, holding action in 
subjection, on the very threshold of duty. 

He was a success because he followed principle through 
light and darkness. 

He had an intense "love for justice and hatred of 
iniquity." 

He was a disciple of wisdom, and loved humanity, his 
country, and his God. 

He was not a mere moralizing moralist, who dreams or 
deals in abstractions and mourns because the world is 
not better, but he was an acting, potential moralist who 
improved and purified the concrete activities of life. 

He was human and probably made mistakes, but, If so — 

He erred, and was sorry; but never drew 
A trusting heart from the pure and true. 
When friends look back from the years to be, 
God grant they jnay say such things of me. 

He maintained at all times that dignity that is indica- 
tive of the trained soldier. 

He always bore himself as becomes the high-minded, 
courteous southern gentleman of the old school. Kind- 



[29] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

ness was the fruit, courtesy the flower of his character. 
From these cordial sentiments " spring blossoms and 
flowers of spiritual beauty that are captivating ornaments 
to the person and exhale an atmosphere of refinement and 
tenderness wherein the harsher self is soothed into dis- 
interestedness and devotion." 

He has passed from us; but he had done a large labor 
and it was done in full manhood and good faith. May we 
profit by his life and emulate his example. 



[30] 



Address of Mr. Thistlewood, of Illinois 

Mr. Speaker: When I entered the first session of the 
Sixtieth Congress in February, 1908, I found Gen. George 
W. Gordon representing the tenth district of Tennessee. 
He had entered Congress at the beginning of the session, 
while I came in to fill a vacancy in February. 

Boarding at the same hotel, I soon became acquainted 
with him. He was a reserved man, very quiet, but of a 
social disposition. He was a very hard worker and much 
devoted to the interests of the people of his district and of 
the Southland. He was faithful in attendance on the 
sessions of the House, and then worked late at night 
attending to his correspondence and in the preparation 
of his work for the next day. He was very popular in 
his home town. I attended his funeral at Memphis, and 
I think I never saw such universal respect as was paid 
to him by all classes of people. Business was almost uni- 
versally suspended and silence seeined to pervade the 
city, which bespoke the genuine feeling of sorrow as 
evidenced by his friends and neighbors. 

At the time of Gen. Gordon's death he was the 
commander in chief of the United Confederate Vet- 
erans, an organization of veteran soldiers. He had been 
many times reelected. His comrades evinced such loyalty 
to his memory, such respect for his many virtues, as 
belonged only to the brave and courageous. 

Gen. Gordon attained the rank of major general, I think, 
in the Confederate Army; was wounded in battle; taken 
prisoner at Franklin; and was not released until after the 
close of the war in 1865. But, unmindful of the misfor- 



[31] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

tunes of war, he set the example and went to work man- 
fully to build up the waste places. How well he and his 
comrades succeeded in doing this is evidenced by the 
prosperity of the South to-day. No section of the 
country, notwithstanding the fearful destruction of war, 
has builded up more rapidly than the South. 

Gen. Gordon will be missed. His family will miss him 
at the fireside when the shades of evening gather around. 
His colleagues in Congress will miss his quiet, gentle 
influence on the passage of bills for the benefit of his 
section and for the benefit of the country. 

When a good man dies, 

Whose nobleness succeeds 

To bless the many needs 

And cheer the heart that bleeds |H 

With high, unselfish deeds; 

We can not count the cost, 

Nor reckon what we've lost, 

When a good man dies. 



[32] 



Address of Mr. Slayden, of Texas 

Mr. Speaker: Peculiar interest attaches to the memory 
of our departed friend, for the last of the Confederate 
brigadiers left Congress when George W. Gordon joined 
his comrades who wore the gray in the great struggle of 
50 years ago. His death ends an epoch. 

The coming of the Confederate brigadier to the Con- 
gress of the United States in 1873 made a political sensa- 
tion. It was the beginning of a new chapter in the history 
of our country, and was the first outward and visible sign 
of the restoration of the Union, to accomplish which the 
most prodigal expenditure of blood and treasure known 
to the annals of government had been made. The war 
was over, and the readmission of the Southern States to 
a share in government was actually begun. 

The restoration of governinent in the South to those 
best qualified to administer it brought the ex-Confederate 
forward. It was the most natural and reasonable thing in 
the world that men who had been leaders in war would, 
because they possessed the quality of leadership, be also 
the captains of a political movement that demanded the 
same sort of wisdom, patience, and courage. 

No man from the South has ever had cause to blush for 
their appearance in this Hall or for their conduct while 
here. 

This is hardly an appropriate occasion for historical 
review; but just to show the reason for the appearance in 
Congress of such men as Gen. Gordon, I will mention one 
or two things in connection with the affairs of the South. 
Promptly after the close of the War between the States 
came reconstruction, a horror that we would like to 



93462°— 13- 



[33] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 



forget; then reenfranchisement, for which we were and 
are grateful; and then, the way being opened by the 
restoration to citizenship to the whites of the South, the 
Confederate brigadier made his appearance in this or the 
other Chamber. 

Why should they not have come? They had been gal- 
lant and loyal men in arms; they were honest and frank 
in politics. Their worth had been proven in the crucible 
of war, and, of course, their people trusted them. The 
protest against their appearance as Senators and Repre- 
sentatives, made as part of the play of partisan politics, 
went unheeded, at least in the South, and their records 
have justified the confidence that was given them. 

If one will look over the directories of the Thirty- 
seventh, Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Con- 
gresses, he will find after the names of certain States the 
word "vacant." In the Fortieth Congress, in some 
instances, the word "vacant" had been replaced with 
the names of strangers. I forbear to say more than that 
one will look in vain in the list of southern Representa- 
tives and Senators of that period for the names of citizens 
of the Commonwealths that they claimed to represent 
who were in any way associated with their history in 
purer and happier days. 

Not until the Forty-first Congress had convened was 
there even nominally a full representation in Congress 
from those States that were the Southern Confederacy. 
It was in the Forty-third Congress, elected in 1872, the 
real people of the South being again in possession of their 
local and State governments, that the man who had risked 
his life for and with them made his appearance in Wash- 
ington as representative in one House or the other. 
Their names are nearly all found on the South's roll of 
honor. Their lives make the proudest chapters in our 
history of the last 50 years. 

[34] 



Address of Mr. Slayden, of Texas 



There were, among others, Alexander H. Stephens, of 
Georgia, a great statesman; John B. Gordon, the soldier 
whose natural ability supplied the lack of training and 
made him an eminent commander; and Norwood and 
Ransom. These were soon followed by Reagan, Mills, 
Maxey, Culberson, and other distinguished figures of the 
Southern Confederacy from Texas. Virginia and Ala- 
bama, so rich in those jewels that made Cornelia a boaster, 
sent their best, as everyone will admit who had the privi- 
lege of knowing Morgan, Pettus, and Daniel. There was 
Lamar, of Mississippi, who was a great figure in the 
actual shock of battle and who also won proud eminence 
as legislator, academician, and jurist. There was Cock- 
rell, whose dash and gallantry as a soldier was hardly 
suspected by his colleagues, who only knew him as a per- 
sistent, painstaking Senator. Then there were Vance, 
of North Carolina, of cheerful and blessed memory; 
Butler, of South Carolina ; Harris, of Tennessee, in whom 
high character and perfect courtesy were so well com- 
bined; Walthall — the knightly Walthall — of Mississippi; 
and Bate, of Tennessee, the hero of two wars. An esti- 
mate of their characters may be confidently left to the 
impartial writer of history. The whispers of slander did 
not disturb them. There was no suspicion of dishonesty, 
no taint of graft, attaching to them. They may not all 
have been great statesmen, but they were never excelled 
in the essential traits of manliness. They were brave, 
honest, truthful, courteous, and gentle. What more can 
one ask or expect? 

My own career in Congress is not a very long one, but 
it takes me back to a personal acquaintance with a few 
of the Confederate brigadiers who were then in service. 
When I came I found here Morgan and Pettus, of Ala- 
bama, both of whom wrote their names so large in the 
affairs of the country that many generations will come 

[35] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

and go before they are effaced; McEnery, of Louisiana, 
major general in the Confederacy and later so signally 
honored by his State; Walthall, Catchings, and Hooker, 
of Mississippi; Mills, of Texas; Daniel, of Virginia; and 
Bate, of Tennessee. It was indeed a privilege and pleas- 
ure to know these heroes of a great war who did not 
whine in adversity or declaim against fate. 

Our dear friend whose memory we are now honoring 
was a worthy successor to the great men that I have just 
referred to. The high standard they made he measured 
up to. The traditions they left were not dimmed or dis- 
honored in his person and service. As a soldier his ca- 
reer was without blemish; as a citizen he was repeatedly 
and persistently honored by his people, and when he died 
his neighbors at home and here were sincere mourners. 

He put nothing into his brief and modest biography for 
the Directory that was not essential, and one can only 
get a hint of his exciting and picturesque life by reading it. 

It appears that he had military training; that when the 
War between the States came he was made drillmaster 
of the Eleventh Tennessee Infantry, and that with that 
organization he went into the service of the Confederacy. 
He was gradually promoted from the grade of captain 
up to and including that of brigadier general. This we 
learn from the brief biographical sketch in the Directory, 
but we do not learn there that each promotion was earned 
by gallant and meritorious service on the field of battle, 
nor that he had the star of a general officer on his shoul- 
der before his beard had fully grown. He missed no 
engagements in which his regiment had a part unless in 
hospital with wounds or in prison. 

I remember that on one occasion the Committee on 
Military Affairs was hearing some citizens of Tennessee 
who wanted a park made of the Franklin battle field. 
They knew of the fight there only by tradition, and the 

[36] 



Address of Mr. Slayden, of Texas 



account they gave of it, while interesting, as the story of 
one of the bloodiest engagements of the whole Civil War 
must be, differed little from the written descriptions 
accessible to every committeeman. 

It was suggested by some one that Gen. Gordon had 
been in that battle, and he was asked to tell the story. He 
did so. With modesty and with scant reference to his 
own part in it he told us of the Battle of Franklin. His 
story was simple and graphic. He did not exaggerate the 
courage of his own side or disparage that of the enemy. 
But no member of the committee who heard his descrip- 
tion of that great fight between their countrymen will ever 
forget it or him. Few of them knew that the modest — 
almost shrinkingly modest — gentleman who sat with them 
from day to day, engaged in the discharge of common- 
place duties, was one of the heroes of a great war. They 
knew him as a man of extreme courtesy and winning gen- 
tleness of manner. They knew he was no swashbuckler; 
they did not know he was a paladin. 

One had only to meet George W. Gordon to respect him. 
To know him was to love him. 

Gen. Gordon was an earnest supporter of the movement 
for world-wide peace through arbitration. I have heard 
him plead eloquently for arbitration. He knew from 
hard experience the unreason of war. As a statesman 
and Christian he appreciated the advantages of peace. 
He was invariably found on the side of right and justice, 
and he leant toward mercy always. 

It is not likely that ever again will a Confederate briga- 
dier be seen or heard in the American Congress. It is 
gratifying to every southern man to know that the last 
Confederate Gordon was a credit to the first; that the 
standard of honesty and honor, if they be distinguishable, 
set up by his comrades who preceded him was maintained 
to the end. Peace to his ashes. 



[37] 



Address of Mr. Tilson, of Connecticut 

Mr. Speaker : My acquaintance with Gen. George Wash- 
ington Gordon was limited to less than three years, and 
yet so deep was the impression this strong, brave, gentle 
character made upon me during this brief period that I 
am unwilling to let this occasion pass without bringing 
here just a few words of affectionate regard for him. 

Though I was born in the same State where he lived 
and did his life's work, it was not my good fortune to 
meet or know him until the beginning of the Sixty-first 
Congress. The fact of my birthplace being in Tennessee 
soon brought me to know all the Representatives of that 
State, and as Gen. Gordon and myself were assigned to 
membership on the same great committee of this House 
the opportunity for closer acquaintance and friendship 
was presented. It is cause for genuine satisfaction to 
me that the opportunity was improved. 

Naturally much of our conversation turned upon the 
stirring times of the Civil War. It was my lot to be born 
after that unhappj"^ strife had ended, but in a region whose 
people had suffered much loss of life and property and 
whose lands had been devastated by the armies of both 
sides to the conflict impartially. Hence from my earliest 
youth I had been thrilled by much of the story from my 
parents and other older friends who had lived through 
that period. Gen. Gordon had not only lived through 
those times but had been a prominent and potent par- 
ticipant. It was, therefore, a rare treat for me to hear 
him on this subject. His well-known and unusual mod- 
esty made it somewhat difficult to draw him out, espe- 
cially as to the part he played in the struggle. Once in 

[38] 



Address of Mr. Tilson, of Connecticut 

a while, however, when only a few members of the com- 
mittee happened to be together informally, he could be 
induced to unbosom himself. I shall never forget his 
vivid description of the Battle of Franklin, to which the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Slayden] has just referred. 
As he described that awful scene of carnage and death 
the intervening years seemed to fade out, and it was as 
if we were actually living through it. We could see the 
brigade commanded by Gen. Gordon as it charged the 
Federal breastworks, the bullets hailing and the onrush- 
ing lines of his brave men thinning until the survivors 
reached the very ditch in front of the earthworks. They 
had literally fought to the last ditch, and there he and 
a few of his men, within a rifle's length of the enemy, 
were overwhelmed and captured. 

Knowing his extreme gentleness of manner and sweet- 
ness of character, it was sometimes difficult to think of 
him as a valiant warrior, but those of us who were fortu- 
nate enough to hear his description of the Battle of 
Franklin will never doubt his presence on that bloody 
field nor the gallant part he played there. 

Just one other point in Gen. Gordon's character, quite 
in accord with what has already been said, was his mag- 
nanimity toward Union soldiers. The Committee on 
Military Affairs has to consider an endless number of 
bills for the relief of soldiers from the consequences of 
actual or technical violations of military law, orders, 
and regulations. Whenever there was reasonable doubt 
as to whether actual blame rested upon a soldier. Gen. 
Gordon's voice was always for leniency, and more espe- 
cially so if the record of the soldier for long service and 
brave conduct proved to be good. Such generosity to a 
one-time foe, while not unusual among those who really 
fought the battles of that great war, is as beautiful as it 
is inspiring. 



[39] 



Address of Mr. Houston, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: I shall not on this occasion attempt to 
outline the life and career of Gen. Gordon or to call atten- 
tion even to notable and heroic events connected with his 
life, although there were so many. The annals of the 
times furnish a history of his career. I come only to pay 
my tribute of love and respect to his memory and to voice 
my sorrow that he is no more. My acquaintance with 
him began with the assembling of the Sixtieth Congress, 
and I was in close contact with him from that period 
until the end came to him. As my knowledge of the man 
became more and more intimate from day to day my 
admiration and reverence for him grew step by step. 
With steady purpose and an unfaltering adherence to his 
convictions he pursued the even tenor of his way without 
hesitation. He was inspired always with a sublime faith 
and intense conviction, and his course never wavered in 
his adherence to his faith and conviction of right. With 
ready will and determined purpose he met every duty, 
and no influence was strong enough, and no fear of effect 
upon his personal and political fortune strong enough, to 
cause him to falter. With a courage that was sublime 
he met every issue and discharged every duty. His record 
as a soldier is one of which a nation can be proud. His 
spirit was as gentle and as kind as the dove, and his 
courage in war was strong as that of the lion. In the 
discharge of his duties as a civilian and as a public official 
he possessed the same high courage and indomitable will 
to stand for and to advocate the righteous cause. He was 
an aggressive foe to political corruption in eveiy form, 
and he did not hesitate to take upon himself the respon- 



[40] 



Address of Mr, Houston, of Tennessee 

sibility of antagonizing evil practices of every kind and 
to openly and steadfastly fight to suppress every effort to 
corrupt or demoralize the political practices of his day 
and time. I have seen him cast votes as a Member of 
this House that required great courage, and he always had 
that courage to cast his vote according to his conviction 
of the right. 

It might be said that he was a type of the old school, 
but in no sense did he linger amid the ruins of the past 
or did he pine for departed institutions. At the end of 
the Civil War, when the South — 

Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear, 
Closed her bright eye and curbed her high career — 

he accepted the decree of battle and met living issues 
with his face set toward the future, determined in every 
condition to work and to labor for the interest of his 
people and the success of the right. He kept abreast of 
the times, and with a willing hand was ready to do his 
part in every struggle that involved the interest of his 
country and the elevation of his people. 

The honors conferred upon him by the survivors of that 
cause to which he devoted his service and his life in his 
younger days attest how much his comrades honored and 
loved him. The positions of honor and trust to which 
he was assigned by his people in his latter years bespeak 
the trust they placed in him. Those who knew him be- 
lieved in him and loved him, and his public record bears 
high evidence that their trust and affection was not mis- 
placed. As a Member of this House he commanded the 
absolute confidence of all, and his death is mourned in 
affectionate remembrance. 

I was a member of the funeral party that conducted 
his remains to his beloved State and home, and as the 
funeral procession passed along the streets of Memphis 



[41] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Gordon 

the streets were filled for miles with mourning and weep- 
ing friends and constituents. It was a tribute that spoke 
unmistakably of the love his people bore him. 

In his case " the hand of the Reaper took the ear that 
was hoary"; still the harvest might have been delayed 
but for his indefatigable energy and perseverance in 
laboring for his constituents. Few Members of the House 
devoted so many hours each day to the service of their 
people, and, no doubt, he would have been spared longer 
but for his unremitting toil. But his life was complete, 
his work well done, and the harvest was ready. It has 
been said that " He lives longest who does most good 
deeds," and, measured by this standard, his career reached 
a limit among the longest. It is a priceless treasure to 
have known such a man, and a blessing to a country to 
have the service of such a one, and a jewel in Tennessee's 
crown of glory that he was one of her sons. 



[42] 



Address of Mr. Austin, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker : During the past four years Tennessee has 
lost three of its great public men who were Members of 
Congress, namely, Hon. Walter P. Brownlow, of Jones- 
boro, who died July 8, 1910; Gen. George W. Gordon, of 
Memphis, who died the 9th day of August, 1911; and Sena- 
tor Robert L. Taylor, of Nashville, who died March 31, 
1912. The people of the State, regardless of political 
affiliations, loved, trusted, and honored these three men. 
This was not only proven by their long and continuous 
public service, but there was still stronger evidence of it 
when the people paid their last loving tribute to them. 
These three men rendered great and invaluable service 
to the people of Tennessee, who will ever love and cherish 
their memories. They were very much alike in make-up 
and in disposition. They were kind, generous, tender, 
and genial. They were devoted to the interests of the 
" Volunteer State." They were unceasing in their efforts 
to advance and promote the interests of its people. I 
doubt if any man or woman ever appealed in vain to a 
single one of these men for a kindness or a favor. They 
made the world better by having lived in it. They 
marked out and led careers of goodness and usefulness 
that it would be well for those of their colleagues left 
behind to endeavor to follow and to imitate. In Ten- 
nessee there were many tear-dimmed eyes, many aching 
hearts in every county, every city, every hamlet, and 
away out in the country upon the farms when these three 
men passed into the great beyond. I met Gen. Gordon, 
to whose memory we are to-day paying a just and deserv- 
ing tribute, for the first time upon the organization of the 

[43] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

Sixty-first Congress, and our last parting was at the White 
House on the occasion of President Taft's twenty-fifth 
wedding anniversary, where he was accompanied by his 
devoted wife. He had only a short time before returned 
from the encampment of the Confederate veterans at 
Little Rock. That long, hot, and tedious journey to far- 
away Arkansas to once more meet and mingle with his 
old comrades — those who had fought and suffered with 
him through that long, tragic Civil War; those whom he 
dearly loved — seemed to completely exhaust his strength 
and vitality. I recall how tired and weary he looked, 
and in a few days he was away in the mountains of east 
Tennessee engaged in his last great fight — the fight for 
renewed health and life. Rut the waiting messenger 
would brook no delay, and he journeyed o'er the pleasant 
pathway that God had blazed for him to the stars. Gen. 
Gordon was a true son of Tennessee. He was an honest, 
just, and good man; a modest, generous, and brave sol- 
dier; a kind, loving, and thoughtful husband; and a 
worthy, industrious, faithful, and efficient public servant. 
As the Representative of the southern district which 
contained more Union people and furnished the largest 
number of soldiers to the Union or Federal Army than 
any district south of Mason and Dixon line, I profoundly 
and sorrowfully regret Gen. Gordon's going. 



[44] 



Address of Mr. Garrett, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: When the soul of Gen. George W. Gor- 
don weighed anchor and sailed serenely out through 
the mists and shadows into the vast unknown, it was 
the passing of as brave and chivalrous a spirit as the 
generations in this Republic have produced. He was 
mourned and praised throughout the land, and more 
particularly in those great and gallant Commonwealths 
to which in the heydey of his life he dedicated himself 
and for which in battle after battle he struggled with 
well-nigh reckless abandon. The story of his life is one 
of decency, of dignity, and of eminent success. 

He was born in Giles County, Tenn., October 5, 1836, 
and was reared chiefly in Mississippi and Texas. In 
1859 he graduated from the Western Military Institute, 
at Nashville, Tenn., an institution at whose head was 
Bushrod Johnson, a graduate of West Point Military 
Academy. He had previously received a collegiate edu- 
cation of a high character, but his military training was 
that which he was first to need, for within less than two 
years from the time of his graduation the great War of 
Secession was on. His services were promptly offered 
to his native State, and he was assigned as drill master 
to the Eleventh Tennessee Infantry Regiment, which had 
just been organized and was in a camp of instruction 
at Camp Cheatham, in Robertson County, Tenn. After 
several weeks of assiduous drill at this point the regi- 
ment was transferred to eastern Tennessee. Here Capt. 
Woodward, of Company I — a Humphreys County 
(Tenn.) company — having resigned, Gordon was elected 
as captain, in which capacity he served from August 1, 

[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

1861, until May 27, 1862, when he was promoted to be 
lieutenant colonel of the regiment. In November, 1862, 
he was promoted to be colonel, and August, 1864, he was 
appointed brigadier general. He assumed command of 
Vaughn's brigade, Cheatham's corps, Army of Tennessee, 
and served as such until he was captured, November 30, 
1864, at the bloody battle of Franklin, Tenn. 

After his capture there he was held as a prisoner of 
war, most of the time at Fort Warren, Mass., from which 
place he was released July 24, 1865. 

Such is a brief outline of his military record. To fill 
in this outline and give in detail the record of his serv- 
ices, his struggles and privations, his bold and magnifi- 
cent deportment, would be a story as thrilling as that of 
the knights of old around whom so much of romance 
and tragedy has been woven. He was in the Battles of 
Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw 
Mountain, all save one of Hood and Sherman's battles 
around Atlanta and at Jonesboro, Ga., and that at Frank- 
lin, as well as innumerable skirmishes. He was thrice 
wounded, once dangerously, and thrice captured, being 
twice exchanged. His various promotions were the result 
not of political influence, but of distinct merit proven 
in the battle line. He was modest and brave and gener- 
ous, a knightly man of a knightly land. 

Those of us who were privileged to hear him tell his 
war reminiscences will recall his vividness of style and 
force of utterance, and will also remember with what 
modesty he referred to his own part in the strife. Gentle- 
ness and modesty are characteristics of the brave. It 
was particularly interesting to hear him tell the story of 
the awful Battle of Franklin, where there was sustained 
a percentage of loss on the Confederate side, if I remem- 
ber correctly, as great as, if not greater, than in any 
battle of the war, not excluding Gettysburg. 

[46] 



Address of Mr. Garrett, of Tennessee 

Gen. Gordon was a true soldier; military tactics and 
problems appealed to his mind, and his courageous spirit 
made the conflict a splendid concept to him, though he 
deplored with all his great heart its awful horrors. 

After his release from prison he perfected himself as 
a lawyer and entered upon the practice in the city of 
Memphis. I do not know much of him as a lawyer, but 
it is my impression from what I have heard him say that, 
while the intellectual side of the law appealed to his 
mind, the practice was in some respects distasteful. 

In 1883 the Legislature of Tennessee passed an act 
creating a railroad commission, and Gen. Gordon was 
appointed by Gov. Bate as one of the commissioners. 
His service upon this was in line with his high and honest 
character. The powers of the commission were not very 
great, but within the limit of those powers he rendered 
honest and efficient service. 

In 1885 he was appointed to a position in the Interior 
Department of the Federal Government, and served for 
four years with honor. 

He then returned to Memphis and reengaged in the 
practice of law until 1892, when he was chosen super- 
intendent of the city schools of Memphis. This was a 
congenial and delightful work. He brought to it a rich 
equipment of learning and executive ability, and for 15 
years he administered this position with fidelity and to 
the eminent satisfaction of the people of that great city. 

He acquired a plantation of considerable dimensions 
in the State of Mississippi, and took great interest in 
agriculture, giving to it a great deal of personal attention. 

In 1906 he was elected as Representative in Congress 
from the tenth district of Tennessee; was reelected in 
1908 and in 1910. He died at Memphis August 9, 1911, 
in the seventy-sixth year of his life. His service in this 
body was of the highest character. He was assigned at 

[47] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

the beginning of his first term to the great and important 
Committee on Military AflFairs, and continued there until 
the end. His experience as a soldier gave him a prac- 
tical equipment for this great work, and his industrious 
habits made him one of its most valuable members. 

He was a man of the very highest civic ideals. He 
made one great speech upon this floor which it is a pity 
that every child in the Republic can not read. It dealt 
with the duties of the citizen in his relation to the Gov- 
ernment; the duty of good men to participate in govern- 
mental affairs. It was saturated with the very highest 
quality of patriotism and was a most powerful plea and 
warning. 

At the annual reunion of the United Confederate Vet- 
erans in 1910 Gen. Gordon was elected as their com- 
mander in chief, an honor which he prized perhaps more 
highly than any of the many that were paid him. He 
succeeded Gen. Clement A. Evans in that position. Gen. 
Evans died in July, 1911, and I remember that on the 4th 
of July I visited Gen. Gordon at his room in his hotel in 
this city, when he was confined by the illness which led 
to his death, and found him sitting up in his bed prepar- 
ing the order to be sent out announcing the death of his 
distinguished predecessor. It was one of Gen. Gordon's 
peculiarities that he never dictated to a stenographer. 
All letters he wrote himself in long hand, and then turned 
them over to his secretary to copy on the typewriter. He 
said his mind would not work right dictating. 

The order which he prepared on the death of Gen. 
Evans was a model of beautiful English, in the use of 
which Gen. Gordon was so very excellently gifted. 

On the 5th of July he arose from his sick bed, over the 
protest of his physician, and went to the White House 
to see the President about the appointment of a young 



[48] 



Address of Mr. Garrett, of Tennessee 

gentleman from his district to the Naval Academy, a 
young Jewish lad in whom he was especially interested. 

This was, I think, probably his last official act. He left 
that evening or the next for Tate Springs, Tenn., where 
he remained until about three days before his death, 
when, realizing that the end was near, he asked to be 
carried to his beloved city to die. Arriving there on the 
7th or 8th, he grew gradually weaker and lapsed into 
unconsciousness. Late in the afternoon of the 9th he 
opened his eyes for an instant, and murmured, " Send 
other couriers, those may be killed," closed his eyes once 
more, and passed over to join Lee and Jackson and For- 
rest and all the long line of the Southland's distinguished 
and beloved dead. 

He was a victim of fidelity to duty. He insisted upon 
attending the reunion of his comrades at Little Rock in 
May, 1911, when he was reelected as their commander 
in chief. He was then stricken, and for several weeks 
was confined to his room. As soon as he felt at all able 
to make the trip he insisted upon returning to Washing- 
ton, saying that his duties lay here. The intense heat 
of the city soon broke down his strength, which he could 
never recover. 

I propose, Mr. Speaker, to insert here the tribute which 
was paid him when the news of his death reached this 
city by another great and beloved Tennesseean, who has 
himself since passed into the mysterious land of shadows, 
the late Senator Robert L. Taylor. He said : 

I have known Gen. Gordon ever since I was a boy, but I only be- 
came acquainted with him when I entered the Senate. Before 
then I only knew him as one of the South's bravest and knightliest 
soldiers of the Civil War. He never knew fear, either in battle 
or in peace. He never knew how to be false to his principles 
or to his people. He was as noble a man as ever lived or died. 
His death is a calamity to his State and to the South, but we can 
not bring him back to life again, for he has crossed over the 



93462°— 13- 



[49; 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

river to rest with Stonewall Jackson " under the shade of the 
trees." 

I loved him for his courage, for his honor, and for his loyalty 
to his people. 

He was one of the most industrious men in the Congress of 
the United States, and was always conscientious in the discharge 
of every duty. My heart goes out to his sweet wife, who graced 
Washington with her splendid accomplishments and her beautiful 
life. Peace to his ashes. 

He was, sir, a great, good, clean-souled gentleman. He 
sought his country's honors that he might serve his coun- 
try's good. As soldier, lawyer, administrator, educator, 
legislator, he wrought well in this world of men. I shall 
close with the quotation with which he closed his tribute 
to Gen. Evans. I know of none better or more apropos: 

Though his feet were in the dust, his eyes were on the stars. 



[50] 



Address of Mr. Hull, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker, there is little that I can add to that which 
has been so well and comprehensively spoken by others 
with reference to the life, character, and services of Gen. 
Gordon. I desire, however, briefly to express the keen 
sense of personal loss I feel, and which I am sure is shared 
by every Member of this House and by unnumbered thou- 
sands throughout the South as well. 

It was a rare privilege to have known and been associ- 
ated with Gen. Gordon; his was a delightful personality. 
To know him was to respect, admire, honor, and love him. 
He was the personification of kindness, courtesy, gal- 
lantry, and all those other qualities essential to the perfect 
gentleman and model citizen. Gen. Gordon was ambi- 
tious; but his was not a selfish ambition; it was for his 
people and his country; for, seemingly oblivious of his 
own, he was ever solicitous for the welfare of others. 
Perhaps no man ever lived who possessed a higher sense 
of honor, a fuller measure of patriotism, or more intense 
devotion to duty. These noble traits were strikingly 
revealed by the conduct of Gen. Gordon on many notable 
occasions, both in peace and in war. During the great 
Civil War conflict the South had not a more devoted fol- 
lower nor a more gallant defender. Had this brave and 
chivalrous son possessed a thousand lives, I verily believe 
he would have unhesitatingly offered each and all upon 
the altar of the Confederacy. 

I shall not undertake here to recount the many military 
exploits of this splendid soldier. My honorable and dis- 
tinguished friend from Ohio, Gen. Sherwood, whom we 
all love and honor, and others, have already depicted in 



[51] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

language far superior to any poor words of mine, the chief 
incidents of Gen. Gordon's military career. He was great 
as a soldier and great as a citizen. Though loving the 
South, its cause, and its traditions with an intensity never 
excelled, he accepted the arbitrament of the sword, and at 
the conclusion of that awful conflict industriously applied 
himself to the arts of peace. During the years that fol- 
lowed Gen. Gordon labored unceasingly for the upbuild- 
ing of his prostrate country and the betterment of the 
condition of those who survived the war. Being a man of 
intense energy and constant application. Gen. Gordon has 
been a potent factor in both the educational and material 
development of the South following the reconstruction 
period. While he cheerfully accepted the decree of the 
sword, he never wavered in his faith in the principles for 
which he and others fought. One of my most delightful 
pleasures during our service here was frequently to 
engage Gen. Gordon in conversation and reminiscence 
relative to notable battles and incidents of the war in 
which he figured. When so engaged he would instantly 
become animated, rise to his feet, his face aglow with 
enthusiasm, and all the old-time fire and vigor of the 
soldier would reappear. 

On one occasion, in response to my inquiry relative to 
some phase of the Battle of Shiloh, the stern old warrior, 
pacing the floor and with violent gestures, concluded his 
reply with the exclamation that " if Stonewall Jackson 
had not fallen at Chancellorsville and if Albert Sidney 
Johnston had lived at Shiloh, the Confederate flag would 
be waving on the banks of the Ohio to-day." For the 
moment he was living over again the scenes and occur- 
rences of 50 years ago. Gen. Gordon was strikingly typi- 
cal of that superb citizenship that existed in the South 
before the war. 



[52] 



Address of Mr. Hull, of Tennessee 



I rejoice that in addition to the important capacities in 
which he served his people during later years he was sent 
to this House by the people of the tenth congressional 
district of Tennessee as their Representative. He was 
on of the few survivors of the lost cause remaining in the 
service here, and it may be said that no inore able nor 
patriotic service was ever rendered this Government than 
that which has been contributed by those who previously 
had served in the Confederate army. 

I consider it an honor to have served in this House with 
Gen. Gordon; I am proud of his life and achievements, 
and I deeply deplore his death. 



[53] 



Address of Mr. McKellar, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: Gen. George W. Gordon was for many 
years my warm personal friend, and it gives me a melan- 
choly but sincere pleasure to bear testimony on this occa- 
sion to his splendid worth as a man, his fine character 
as a citizen, his bearing as a soldier, and his conspicuous 
ability as a public servant. 

He was born in Giles County, in the middle division of 
Tennessee, and spent his early life there in part and part 
in Texas. He was educated in the Western Military 
Academy, in Nashville, from which institution he grad- 
uated in 1859. This institution gave a military training 
similar to that received at the National Military Academy 
at West Point. After graduation young Gordon took up 
civil engineering, and was thus engaged when the Civil 
War broke out in 1861. In June, 1861, he enlisted in the 
service of the State of Tennessee, and was drillmaster of 
the Eleventh Tennessee Infantry Regiment, but was soon 
transferred with other Tennessee troops to the military 
service of the Confederacy. He won promotion raj)idly, 
becoming successively captain, lieutenant colonel, colonel 
of this regiment, and in 1864 was made brigadier general, 
and served with that rank until the close of the war. 
Though captured three times and once dangerouslj' 
wounded. Gen. Gordon participated in every engagement 
fought by his command except those at Nashville, Tenn., 
and at Bentonville, N. C, at which times he was a prisoner 
at Fort Warren, Mass., where he was held until August, 
1865, several months after the war had closed. After his 
release from prison he studied law, was admitted to the 
bar, and practiced his profession until 1883, when he was 

[54] 



Address of Mr. McKellar, of Tennessee 

appointed one of the railroad commissioners of Tennes- 
see. In 1885 he was appointed to a position in the Inte- 
rior Department under President Cleveland, and served 
during Cleveland's first term. He then returned to Mem- 
phis and practiced law until 1892, when he was elected 
superintendent of public schools of Memphis, which posi- 
tion he held until March 4, 1907, when he became a 
Member of this House. 

He was first made a major general of United Confed- 
erate Veterans and afterwards commander in chief of that 
organization, and remained in that position until he died. 

He was elected to Congress three times by overwhelm- 
ing majorities, and died during the extra session of 1911, 
on August 9 of that year. 

Gen. Gordon was the last brigadier general of the Con- 
federate States to serve in either branch of Congress. He 
was, in his service in this House, a connecting link be- 
tween the old South and the new. In appearance, in 
manner, in personality, in demeanor he was essentially 
a Southern gentleman of the old school. In his devotion 
to his reunited country, in his zeal for its welfare, in his 
faith in its future, he represented the most progressive 
southern view and sentiment of to-day. 

The most distinguished characteristics of Gen. Gordon's 
life was his devotion to duty and his great moral and 
physical courage. 

He enlisted into the service of his State because he 
believed in State sovereignty. He fought for the Con- 
federacy, of which his State became a part, because he 
believed its cause was just. His record in the war was 
the most distinguished. At the Battle of Franklin, Tenn., 
it is stated that he actually rode his horse over the breast- 
works, wildly cheering his command to follow, in his 
efforts to annihilate the enemy. He was a soldier all 
during the war. He never shirked, never faltered, and 

[55] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

came out afterwards with a record no one could attack 
and with a reputation that no one would think of attack- 
ing who had any views of his personal safety. 

For in times of peace as well as in war the General 
was a fighter whenever he believed his cause was just. 
I recall an incident that shows both his physical and 
moral courage that happened at the close of his race 
for the primary nomination for Congress the first time 
he ran. His district was composed of the county of 
Shelby, in which the city of Memphis is, and the so-called 
country counties of Fayette, Tipton, and Hardeman. It 
was well understood that the country counties were 
largely for Gen. Gordon, but that Memphis was against 
him. There were four candidates in the first primary, 
and Gen. Gordon led by a slight plurality. I was at the 
time chairinan of the committee, and the election was 
conceded by all the candidates to have been fair. 

Under the rules of the primary, the two candidates 
receiving the largest number of votes w^ere entitled to a 
run-off, to be held 10 days later. On the day of the first 
election I was taken ill and was not allowed to read the 
papers, and did not get out until the day before the elec- 
tion. I found, upon reading the papers, that Gen. Gordon 
had been beguiled into agreeing to a change in the elec- 
tion officers in the first 10 uptown wards. The plan was 
that the officers who had been appointed by me had been in- 
duced not to serve, and the General's opponents submitted 
the proposition to him to alternate the officers in these 
first 10 wards. As soon as I saw the list of these substi- 
tuted officers I knew that it had been arranged to count 
the General out. I sent for him and so informed him, 
though up to that time I had not expected to vote for 
him, and, being absolutely helpless in politics, he at first 
would not believe it. But soon he became alarmed and 
agreed to aid me in every way in having his friends on 

[56] 



Address of Mr. McKellar, of Tennessee 

hand and seeing that the election was fair in the wards 
in which his opponents had chosen the officers. We 
secured perfect fairness in three of the wards, but in two 
of them the Gordon men were forcibly ejected from the 
wards and between five hundred and a thousand votes 
stolen. These fraudulent votes were not sufficient to 
change the result, as the General had won by a larger ma- 
jority than this. Immediately all kinds of persuasion was 
begun to prevent an investigation and prosecution of those 
who had committed these election frauds, but the General 
stood his ground on this question of right, just precisely 
like he stood his ground in war. He was told by hundreds 
of politicians that if he undertook to prosecute the " bal- 
lot-box stuff ers " that it would arouse opposition and 
probably encompass his defeat. He said that he would 
rather be defeated and prosecute those who had wronged 
the ballot box than to win by winking at the crime. He 
went with me before the grand jury and afterwards before 
the criminal court, and the men were convicted and duly 
sentenced and punished in jail. Since that time I do 
not believe it has ever been seriously charged that we 
have had an unfair election in the city of Memphis. 
Before that time charges of unfairness were rife at all 
elections. Thus he aided in accomplishing what I con- 
sider one of the greatest reforms that could have been 
accomplished for our people, namely, a belief in the 
purity of the ballot box and a practice in accordance 
therewith. 

It was in this same election that some young fellow in 
one of the uptown wards said something disrespectful to 
the General as he came by, and before the young fellow 
knew what had happened to him the old General had 
landed him on his face and put him out of business. He 
did not carry that ward, but he had the respect of the 
man that he knocked down and all of his friends so long 

[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

as he lived. Excited politicians were very careful in 
Memphis after that about the way they spoke of the 
General. 

He was formerly connected with our public schools, 
and accomplished a great work in connection therewith. 
He was an indefatigable worker. He was a highly edu- 
cated and well-read man. He took a great pride in the 
schools, and he was in great demand on the lecture plat- 
form on all subjects pertaining to education. 

But Gen. Gordon was essentially a product of the Civil 
War. The themes of that great struggle were the domi- 
nant themes of his life. Educational matters had a great 
interest for him; business affairs took up much of his 
time, for he was a man not slothful in business and accu- 
mulated quite a competency. Political affairs were also of 
great interest to him, and especially when he was a candi- 
date for oflice, as was perfectly natural. Social affairs 
had a great attraction for him, and he was popular in all 
matters of a social nature. Personal friendship was 
strong with him, and he had many warm personal friends; 
but all of these things were even of a secondary consid- 
eration with him. The great strife between the States had 
for him ever a vital, strong, and passionate interest. He 
would postpone any educational matter, he would break 
any social engagement, he would stop any business trans- 
action, he would even lay aside political endeavor, in order 
to make a speech to any gathering of comrades at arms 
upon any question pertaining to the war. Yet, notwith- 
standing his great interest in that great struggle, he was 
not embittered by it. He believed in it, and believed in it 
strong. I think he kept that belief until he died. Yet 
the belief and his devotion to it did not make for him 
unkind feelings toward those whom he had fought in that 
struggle. Quite the contrary. He had the highest admi- 
ration for the men who really did fight on the other side. 

[58] 



Address of Mr. McKellar, of Tennessee 

When he came to Congress he sought out those on the 
other side that he knew had taken a noble part in the 
fight. He liked to be with them, he liked to recount ex- 
periences, and, I believe, next to his own family and com- 
rades at arms, he loved those who had fought against him 
more than any other body or class of men in the world. 

Gen. Gordon was the last brigadier general of the Con- 
federate Army to serve in this House, and he served here 
with conspicuous ability and fidelity. He was never a 
timeserver, he wa's never a politician, but, rather, a 
straightforward, honest, sincere gentleman. And men on 
both sides knew always exactly where to place him. He 
knew no way that was not honorable. He knew no mo- 
tive that was not honest. He knew no politics that were 
not straightforward politics. He knew no rule of con- 
duct that was not honorable and just. It indeed may 
be said that he belonged to an age and generation that 
had passed away — to an era of our national life that 
is no more. It may be said that he belonged to a school 
of gentlemen with ideas and views that are now out of 
date. But, in my judgment, no man who knew him and 
knew his kind but must say that the world is the loser 
if it is progressed beyond the kind of man that Gen. 
Gordon was. 

The great esteem in which Gen. Gordon was held was 
shown by the vast concourse that attended his funeral 
in Memphis. The entire city lined the streets along which 
the funeral procession passed. Flags were at half-mast; 
the schools turned out in a body; Confederate and Fed- 
eral veterans came from many States; and he was buried 
beneath a pyramid of flowers, shrouded in a Confederate 
flag. It was a great tribute to a great man. 

I want to say it gives me great pleasure and it will 
give my people great pleasure to know that among those 
who have taken part in the exercises to-day are not only 

[59] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 



those who were his comrades in this period of his life 
which meant most to him and to them, not only those of 
his own political faith, but that we have here many of 
those who fought against him in that memorable contest 
and those who opposed him politically. It is a great 
tribute to him and one which his family, his friends, and 
his State will greatly appreciate. 



I 



[60] 



Address of Mr. Padgett, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: Those who have preceded me have so 
tenderly and so eloquently portrayed the noble attributes 
of the character of our late distinguished colleague, Gen. 
George W. Gordon, that I shall not detain the House long 
to add to what has been said. So beautifully have those 
who have preceded me spoken that I could not add mate- 
rially to their tributes to his memory. 

As the cycle of the years turn, one by one we drop out, 
one by one we lay down our labors and cease our toil. 
Time and time again we repeat in this Hall the sad serv- 
ice we are performing here to-day to pay a just tribute 
of respect and homage to the memory and to the faithful 
service of a colleague who has gone before. Gen. Gordon 
was a magnificent man, a man of splendid character. 
When I say magnificent I do not mean dazzling, but I 
mean magnificent and splendid in the possession of those 
robust qualities and attributes of character that consti- 
tute and make up the real, genuine, substantial man, the 
man whose life work adds to the sum total of service in 
life, the man whose labors contribute to the happiness 
of the people, whose life is such that he draws himself 
to others and draws others to him, so that they can get 
together in those close relations that as they touch elbows 
they can feel the touch of human sympathy, and as they 
clasp hands they can feel the throb of human kindness 
and human love that pulsates in the heart and makes the 
generous soul. 

Gen. Gordon was a reticent men, a man of modest 
reserve. He did not thrust himself immodestly into 
affairs. He did not seek to advertise himself. He did 
not boast of his accomplishments. But with that becom- 

[61] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 



ing modesty, that reserve, that reticence that marks always 
the demeanor of the life of a true gentleman — a gentle 
man — Gen. Gordon moved with a quiet, dignified reserve 
that commanded the respect and the reverence of every 
man who loved nobility of character and admired high- 
mindedness of purpose. 

Gen. Gordon was a brave man. He was brave morally, 
and that is the highest type of bravery — that courage that 
reenforces conduct, that courage that maintains convic- 
tions, that courage which supports character, that courage 
which marks the real, genuine man — the moral courage 
of belief and of conviption. 

Gen. GotoON was a positive man. With all of his mod- 
esty, with all of his reserve, with all of his reticence, I 
do not think I ever knew a man of more positive convic- 
tions, a man who believed what he did believe with more 
firmness and with more substance. He was not afraid 
of his convictions. He did not seek to hide them. No 
bushel could conceal his beliefs or his convictions. 
Frank, open, positive in all the attributes of his char- 
acter, he despised every element of cowardice and 
hypocrisy. 

He was a man of great physical courage. I shall not 
attempt to recite or to rehearse the many honorable inci- 
dents in his career on the field of battle, both in facing 
physical danger and in bearing uncomplainingly the 
hardships of war. Others have told them fax more elo- 
quently, far more impressively, than I can hope or expect 
to do. But I dare say that in the annals of the Civil 
War there was no man who participated in it who gave 
a higher, a stronger, a nobler evidence and illustration 
of physical courage and undaunted bravery in the face 
of danger and death than Gen. George W. Gordon. 

He was a lovable man in his quiet demeanor, in his 
unassuming character, in his gentleness. When you ap- 

[62] 



Address of Mr, Padgett, of Tennessee 

preached him, when you got near to him, when there 
was fellowship between you, I never knew a man who 
was more lovable in his character, more tender in his 
sympathies. He was a man of great compassion, because 
he had in him a genuine heart. His sympathies were 
as broad as humanity. He was not pent up and con- 
tracted and narrow in his views. His great heart was 
not prejudiced in ignorance, or in superstition, or in 
narrowness of conception. He was generous in his feel- 
ings toward individuals. He was generous in his con- 
ceptions and in his sympathies for humanity. Wherever 
there was a human being. Gen. Gordon was prepared to 
say, " He is a part of the brotherhood of man, under the 
fatherhood of God." Such was the concept of his human 
sympathy — broad, generous, liberal. 

Gen,. Gordon was a polite man, a courteous man. Mr. 
Speaker, I digress a moment to speak a word for polite- 
ness, one of the richest attributes of our character. I 
sometimes think that in these later days of stir and strife 
and struggle after business affairs, in the turmoil and 
tumult of the congestion of population, as our industries 
and businesses have multiplied and increased, individuals 
have ceased to have that care and attention and, I am 
almost tempted to say, that reverence and respect for 
this beautiful attribute of character which we call polite- 
ness, the dignified, courteous demeanor of deportment 
that so characterized and distinguished our ancestors. 
It marks the difference between the cultured gentleman 
and the unconcerned, careless individual. May I illus- 
trate it by saying that an individual without politeness, 
without that courteousness of demeanor, may be a rough, 
uncouth diamond, but the polite man is the polished 
diamond. Gen. Gordon was a polished diamond. The 
attributes of his character were real gems. 



[63: 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

Gen. Gordon was a patriotic man. He loved his coun- 
try. On the field of battle, in the roar of musketry and 
the thunder of cannon, he proved his devotion to his 
country and his love of his people and his fidelity to duty 
as God gave him the power to see it and to know it. A 
man of his character could not be otherwise than a patri- 
otic man, a man so broad in his concept of patriotism 
that no part of his country should be subject to bias or 
prejudice. He loved every section and every portion of 
this common land of ours. The flag that floated over this 
country was his flag, and the patriotism that it symbolized 
was his patriotism. 

Mr. Speaker, we often say that it is a good thing to be a 
great man. Just at this point I want to reverse that say- 
ing and to emphasize that it is a great thing to be a good 
man; a man whose life, whose character, whose heart, 
whose love, whose sympathies are such that they touch 
humanity, that they mix and mingle in the affairs of men, 
that they make lives happier, that add something to the 
betterment and the uplift of our civilization; such a man 
is a good man. 

While it may be a good thing to be a great man, it is 
certainly true that it is a great thing to be a good man, 
and such can be said of Gen. Gordon. He was a man of 
a delicate and refined sense of honor. 

But at last he laid off his armor. He ceased to march, 
he ceased to respond to the bugle call to duty in this life. 
Life's fitful fever over, he sleeps well. He has passed 
from among us, and I ask myself the question. Where 
shall we find him? We followed him to the open grave 
and deposited the mortal remains and covered them — 
earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Where is he? 
I may not be able to mark it on a chart, but I know that 
wherever the great Creator shall gather together the good, 
the pure, the noble, the brave, there we shall see and there 
we shall find Gen. George Washington Gordon. 



[64] 



Address of Mr. Sims, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: To do his duty was the single aim of 
George Washington Gordon, whose memory we honor. 
His duty as he conceived it to be was to serve his fellow 
men and his country, and in that service he spent a long 
life of indefatigable industry. Soldier, educator, admin- 
istrator, and legislator, Gen. Gordon never knew what it 
meant to rest. He was always at work. 

When he had reached the Psalmist's span of life he 
came to take up new duties as a Member of this body. 
But his threescore years and ten had earned him no sur- 
cease from toil, had won from his own conscience no 
indulgence. He attacked his new duties with a vigor 
that would do credit to a man of half his years, and 
until his feet carried him into the very valley of the 
shadow he kept hard at work. 

Trained in the hard school of an older generation, he 
had not learned to use those conveniences of modern 
life that have lightened the burden of toil, perhaps at 
the expense of accuracy and pains. He did not dictate 
his mail nor intrust his correspondence to a secretary. 
Every letter from a constituent was answered in detail 
and at length in his own handwriting, and I have no 
doubt that the enormous task undertaken in pursuance 
of this idea of his obligation to his people hastened his 
taking off. Certain it is that he attended the reunion 
of the Confederate veterans, of whom he had been chosen 
commander in chief, despite the orders and warnings of 
his physicians, because he believed it to be his duty, and 
certain it is that that exhausting experience was more 
than in his years he could withstand. 

934G2°— 13 5 [65] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

I have seen him more than once ift this House at the 
end of a hard day vv^hen other and younger men were 
leaving for refreshment and recreation still at his desk. 
I have remonstrated with him and warned him that he 
must not work so hard, but in every instance he pointed 
out that it was a task of duty and that his duty must be 
performed. 

Such was the devoted end of a man whose whole long 
life had been ordered and guided by the same principle. 
A graduate of a military school, he adopted the profes- 
sion of a civil engineer, but his career was cut short at 
the beginning by the call to arms in 1861. He enlisted 
as a private in the service of his native State of Tennessee 
and by his executive ability, his military genius, and his 
superb bravery won promotion through every successive 
rank up to that of a brigadier general. Others have 
spoken of his distinguished military service; it is not for 
me to add my word of praise. 

But I can not refrain from saying that I feel that I am 
touched more deeply than are my colleagues of younger 
years by the fact that Gen. Gordon was the last of the Con- 
federate brigadiers to serve in Congress. I was but a boy 
when the great war broke out, but a youth when it ended. 
But I remember it, and I remember the cruel years that 
followed it — cruel years when biting poverty gnawed at 
the heart of our Tennessee and when the peace that pre- 
vailed on paper had not reached our terrorized valleys — 
years when there was no law. 

In that dread time Gen. Gordon did not fail his people. 
He was soon at the head of an organization that used 
every means at hand to restore peace and safety, to make 
possible the resumption of normal habits of life. It was 
not least among his services. 

In later years he served his State as railroad commis- 
sioner and the Federal Government as an efficient officer 
in the Department of the Interior. 



[66] 



Address of Mr. Sims, of Tennessee 



But the work that he loved most of all he took up in 
1892, when he began his 15 years' service as superin- 
tendent of public schools of the city of Memphis. He 
clung to memories of the past, and he could not rid him- 
self of some old-fashioned ways; but his faith in the 
younger generation was firm, and it was his delight to 
serve and train the boys and girls of his home city. 

The same executive ability that won him the stars of a 
general in the Confederate Army now enabled him to 
reorganize and build anew the public-school system of 
Memphis, and to place it on a high plane of practical 
efficiency. 

From that post he came to Congress. Here he was 
assigned to service on the important Committee on Mili- 
tary Affairs, and on that committee, as has been attested 
by so many of his colleagues, he rendered valuable serv- 
ice. His military experience, after 50 years, again was 
called into action to aid him to do his duty as he saw it. 

No man ever doubted him. In the Army his superior 
officers and his men equally trusted him. In the field of 
education he was at once the dependence of the authori- 
ties and of the pupils. In Congress his colleagues here 
and his constituents at home knew him to be bravely 
devoted to the right, indefatigably true to his trust. 

His public life began in 1861. It ended with his death 
in 1911. It spanned a half a century — the most fateful 50 
years of the history of his country; the most marvelous 
50 years in the progress of the world. To say that he was 
the servant of his age, and that his work was well done 
is to give him only what he earned — the full meed of 
mortal praise. 



[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

leave to print 

Mr. Padgett. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that leave be granted to all who may desire to print 
remarks in the Record upon the life, character, and 
services of Gen. Gordon. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman from Ten- 
nessee asks unanimous consent that Members who desire 
may extend remarks in the Record on the life, character, 
and services of Gen. Gordon. Is there objection? [After 
a pause.] The Chair hears none. 

adjournment 

And then, in accordance with the resolution heretofore 
adopted, the House (at 2 o'clock and 15 minutes p. m.) 
adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, May 13, 1912, at 12 
o'clock noon. 



[68] 



Address by Judge L. B. McFarland at Reunion of United 
Confederate Veterans, Macon, Ga., May 8, 1912 

May 25, 1912. 

Mr. McKellar said : 

Mr. Speaker : On May 12 the House held memorial exer- 
cises in honor of my predecessor from Memphis, the late 
Gen. George W. Gordon. Only a few days before. Judge 
L. B. McFarland, a distinguished and eloquent lawyer of 
Memphis and ex-Confederate soldier, and a lifelong 
friend of Gen. G'ordon, delivered an able and beautiful 
address upon the life and character of Gen. Gordon before 
the annual reunion of* ex-Confederate veterans at Macon, 
Ga., and it is so beautiful and fitting a tribute that I ask 
unanimous consent that it may be printed in the Record 
as a part of my remarks and included as one of the memo- 
rial addresses of this House upon the life and character 
of my distinguished predecessor. It is especially fitting 
that this address should have a place in the Record, be- 
cause it contains an unfinished and hitherto unpublished 
farewell address of Gen. Gordon to his old comrades 
in arms. 

The address is as follows : 

Beloved commander and comrades, when delegated by our 
commander in chief to deliver on this occasion a memorial of 
the life and character of your late commander in chief, Gen. 
George W. Gordon, I hesitated to attempt compliance, fearing 
that my great admiration for the subject, born from years of inti- 
mate association, would tempt to adulation, and, on the other 
hand, my incapacity to speak fittingly of a character so noble, 
and a life so full of usefulness, self-sacrifice, and noble deeds, 
gave me pause. I felt the deeds of such a man should not be 



[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

feebly uttered, but I took the delegation to be a command and 
an honor, and the opportunity to perpetuate in the records of this 
association a tribute to a dead friend and brother could not be 
disregarded. 

George W. Gordon was born on the 5th day of October, 1836, 
in Giles County, Tenn, He was the son of Andrew Gordon, a 
native of Tennessee, and Eliza K. Gordon, Virginian born. This 
county — one of the blue-grass region of Tennessee — was one of 
the most fertile and fairest of the land, its people educated, 
refined, and prosperous to a high degree. He was reared there 
and in Mississippi and also Texas, he having spent part of his 
youth in each. He graduated at the Western Military Institute, 
at Nashville, then the West Point of the South, and was thus 
fitted for the performance of arms. He first made civil engineer- 
ing his occupation, and served in that field from 1859 to 1861, 
and until Tennessee seceded from the Union and called her sons 
to arms. He enlisted at once and was made drillmaster of the 
afterwards famous Eleventh Tennessee Infantry, whose first 
colonel was Col. J. E. Raines, afterwards Gen. Raines, who fell 
in a desperate conflict at Murfreesboro. Gordon was soon made 
captain of his company, and then lieutenant colonel and then 
colonel of his regiment, and in 1864 was made brigadier general. 

At the close of the war he studied law and was early elected 
attorney general of one of the criminal courts of Shelby County, 
Tenn., and served the State ably and well. He was then ap- 
pointed a railroad commissioner for the State, and served until 
1885, when, upon the election of Mr. Cleveland, he received an 
appointment in the Department of the Interior, and was assigned 
to duty in charge of an Indian agency amid the mountains of 
Arizona and Nevada. He was eminently fitted for this particular 
post, feeding, educating, and controlling these children of nature 
and wards of the Government, and these duties and opportuni- 
ties were congenial to the habits of his then lonely life and his 
intense love of nature. 

It required that he take, alone and unattended, long trips amid 
the solitudes and vastnesses of the mountains, now wandering 
through beautiful meadows where the dun deer fed and the 
grizzly roamed, and then high above the clouds, threading the 
narrow path that wound around seemingly bottomless preci- 
pices; often overtaken by storm, he reveled in the grandeur of 



[70] 



Address by Judge L. B. McFarland 



nature's supremest effort — saw the lightning flash and heard the 
thunders roll, when — 

" Far along — 
From peak to peak, the rattling crags 
Among, leaps the live thunder." 

And then at night, his horse tethered near, he made his lonely 
bivouac under the clear heavens and near the clear stars, and 
felt himself as did Moses, communing with the God of all these 
wondrous works. To him this was not solitude — 

" 'Twas but to hold converse with nature's charms and view 
her stores unrolled." 

His term of office expired, he returned to Memphis, and was 
soon elected superintendent of the Memphis city schools, which 
office he held until March, 1907, when he was elected to Congress. 
The growth and efficiency of the public-school system of Mem- 
phis during these years became a monument to his zeal, intelli- 
gence, and devotion to his work, and the spread of general edu- 
cation and intelligence signaled his beneficent influence upon the 
youthful thousands under his superintendence, while the grati- 
tude and devotion of teachers and scholars was afterwards dem- 
onstrated by their activity and influence in his several candi- 
dacies for Congress. He had raised an army of constituents 
for any office in the gift of his people. He was twice elected 
to Congress — in 1908, and reelected in 1910 — by overwhelming 
majorities given by an appreciative constituency, where he served 
with the same zeal, fidelity, and devotion he gave any duty of 
life. 

Gen. Gordon was married twice. While attorney general of 
Shelby County, in 1876, he married Miss Ora Paine. Their bridal 
trip was to Niagara Falls. I met them there. She a lovely 
young woman in all the bloom and beauty of youth. He noble 
in manly bearing — his brow bound with the oak of his many 
battles; and with them love was dear and life was sweet, and 
their future horizon seemed spanned with the golden bow of 
promise. They went to New York. In a few weeks she was 
dead. Bridal carols turned to funeral dolors; the orange wreath 
decked her bier, and instead of the joyous wedding march was 
heard the sad words of the ritual, " He cometh up and is cut 



[71] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 



down like a flower. Earth to earth — dust to dust." He was 
alone and desolate. 

In 1899 he was fortunate in finding a companion of congenial 
.culture and taste in Miss Minnie Hannah, of Memphis, with whom 
he was married, who thence shared the honors showered upon 
him by a grateful constituency, and graced his every station. 
She survives him to remember with pride that she was the wife 
of a soldier, a gentleman, and your commander in chief. 

The limits of this occasion will permit only a suggestion of 
his services as a soldier, his adventures, and his distinguished 
gallantry on every field. Captured early in 1862, he was a pris- 
oner for 10 days and then exchanged. Desperately wounded 
at Murfreesboro in one of the bloodiest struggles of that field, 
he was left on the retreat and again became a prisoner, and on 
recovery, after long sufi"ering, was held in prison at Camp Chase 
and then Fort Delaware, suff"ering the horrors of those hells until 
May, 1863, when he was again exchanged and returned to the 
command of his regiment, then in Pres Smith's brigade, Cheat- 
ham's division. Then followed Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge; 
then the campaign from Dalton to Jonesboro, 121 days under 
fire, including the conflicts of Resaca, Calhoun, New Hope 
Church, and Kenesaw Mountain. With his regiment he held 
part of the celebrated Dead Angle. He was made brigadier gen- 
eral at that time, and then the youngest of brigadier generals, 
he first led his brigade at Peachtree Creek, then, on the 22d 
day of July, at Jonesboro. After came the disastrous campaign 
into Tennessee, and, perhaps, the most useless battle and bloodi- 
est slaughter of the war — Franklin. 

Gen. Gordon led his brigade in the desperate charge up to and 
over the breastworks " into the very jaws of hell," when he was 
captured. 

There is an interesting incident connected with this charge 
and capture of Gordon. Earlier in the war Gordon had per- 
mitted his hair to grow longer than military rules sanctioned, 
and Gen. Cheatham, in sending him an order one day, added 
jocularly to his adjutant: "Ingram, tell Gordon to cut ofi" that 
hair." Ingram dehvered his orders, adding, as directed, the 
supplement. Gordon replied : " Tell Gen. Cheatham I will carry 
out his military order, but tell him it is none of his business how 
I wear my hair." 



[72] 



Address by Judge L. B. McFarland 



It became somewhat a matter of jest with Cheatham, who was 
devoted to Gordon, and of pride with Gordon, who was equally 
devoted to Cheatham, to wear his hair long. When Cheatham 
ordered the charge at Franklin, he sent word to Gordon to go 
over the works if he had to be pulled over by his hair. After his 
capture, when leaving with his captors, he left word with a 
citizen to tell Gen. Cheatham " Gordon had gone over the works, 
and was not pulled over by his hair, either." 

During the terrible epidemic of yellow fever in Memphis in 
1873 he was one of a heroic band that remained, and for many 
dark days of suffering and death preserved order, ministered to 
the sick, and buried the dead, displaying self-sacrifice and hero- 
ism greater than all the boasted mastery of arms. 

He was, after the war, a Confederate in heart and soul and 
purse. No appeal for help coming from the aged or crippled 
Confederates, though often pretended nobility was made a plea of 
pity, was ever disregarded. Gen. Gordon was closely affiliated 
with Confederate organizations, and successively made com- 
mander of his camp and bivouac at Memphis, president of the 
Confederate Historical Association, Memphis (oldest of the Con- 
federate organs), and of which Mr. Davis himself was a member; 
president of the State Association of Confederate Bivouacs; major 
general commander Tennessee Division, United Confederate Vet- 
erans; commander of the Department of the Army of Tennessee, 
United Confederate Veterans; and, crowning all, commander in 
chief of United Confederate Veterans. 

His devotion to his comrades in arms and his duties in this 
high office at your last reunion at Little Rock hastened his death, 
and at Memphis, Tenn., he died on the 9th of August, 1911. 

His funeral cortege was a weeping city; his dirge the farewell 
shot by his beloved comrades. Company A, United Confederate 
Veterans, over the grave of the hero we buried — and our com- 
mander in chief departed to return nevermore. 

These are in brief the prominent facts of his life, but they nat- 
urally suggest inquiry from whence sprung such nobleness of 
character, such high ideals of duty, and such ability of per- 
formance. 

The power of heredity, and the influence of climate, food, and 
soils upon the character of men is an essential thesis of science. 
These, with the impress of an age's morality, the advantages of 
education and fortune, the civilization of a particular era, shape 



73] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

and mold men to physical and intellectual worth and greatness. 
It is also equally well established that the tendency is to harmony 
of human types along east and west isothermal lines. That, 
unless marked topographical and race differentiation intervene, 
the same characteristics will mark the men of Carolina that 
appear in the men of Texas. These elements, then, of heredity, 
climate, soil, and social economy had united in the growth of a 
race of young men in the South, from Maryland to Florida, and 
westward to the Rio Grande, immediately preceding the Civil 
"War, whose superior, physically, intellectually, and morally, the 
world had never seen. I know that some foreign and northern 
writers, political economists, and pseudophilosophers assert that 
religious freedom was the motive of the northern settlement, 
while greed of gold was that which populated Virginia and the 
Carolinas, and from this argue a nobler race of men for the 
North. 

Mr. Draper says: 

" The settlement of the South was inspired by material inter- 
ests; that of the North by ideas. * * * Aristocratic influence 
was the motive power of southern immigration; it sought mate- 
rial profit in tobacco and land speculation." 

It is not appropriate here and now to attempt comparison of 
sections nor depreciate the worth and greatness of any portion 
of our people. We only assert that the early settlers of the 
South, the ancestors of our southern youth, brought with them 
the physical, mental, and moral characteristics of a high order 
of humanity and civiUzation. They brought with them lofty 
ideals of the rights of man and man's relation to God. In the 
face of obstacles that would have deterred a less hardy race, 
they subdued a wilderness, conquered the warlike inhabitants, 
and assisted in the establishment of an empire. They rebelled 
against the parental tyranny of England, and the sons of Hamp- 
den and Sydney successfully fought the first revolution. Their 
sons and daughters then addressed themselves to the extension 
of this territory, the perfection of constitutional government, and 
the upbuilding of their private and family fortunes. The South 
" blossomed one day and bore fruit the next." That they had 
succeeded beyond the dreams of Raleigh or the ambition of 
Baltimore, the population, the wealth, and the culture of the 
South in 1861 attest. 



[74] 



Address by Judge L. B. McFarland 



I wish the time and the occasion would permit me to sketch 
the condition of the South at this period; its material wealth, 
its political economy, its social organization, the influence of 
slavery upon this people, and particularly the habits of its young 
men. Whatever may have been the influence of slavery upon 
the material growth of the South, and whatever may have been 
its evils, there was certainly a compensating eff"ect in the produc- 
tion of a society the highest and most delightful. 

Mr. Burke, in his celebrated oration on Conciliation with 
America, one of the English classics, in speaking of the love of 
liberty in America, says: 

" In Virginia and the Carolinas they had a vast multitude of 
slaves. Where this is the case in any part of the world, those 
who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their free- 
dom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment but a kind of 
rank and privilege." 

The well-to-do, including slave-owning, society of the South 
had no superior. It was an aristocracy that fostered and culti- 
vated the noblest sentiments of humanity — culture, independ- 
ence, courage, and knightly courtesy among men; grace, beauty, 
and virtue among its women. Its hospitality was unbounded. 
The stately homes of the James, the homes and the plantations 
of the whole South, were scenes of elegant hospitality. Roman 
riches and the Roman villas and gardens of the days of Cicero, 
Atticus, and Lucullus were not more famed for elegant hospi- 
tality. The lives of the young men were but a training in all 
manly arts, all noble endeavor. All outdoor sports and manly 
exercise were theirs. They delighted in horses and rode like 
centaurs. The ear and eye, accustomed to hunt and chase, could 
detect the rustle of a leaf and spy ptarmigan in snow. They 
fished with skill and swam like Leander. These manly exer- 
cises, with generous food and genial but hardy climate, resulted 
in fine physical perfection. They were, as a class, a handsome 
race of men. They were graduates of the best schools, and 
many of them foreign alumni. The first American to graduate 
in a foreign university was a Virginian. While born and trained 
as masters, the parental authority of the race taught them obe- 
dience and restraint. Their belief in the rights of man did 
not teach them socialism, nor independence of thought and 
worship in religion, nor skepticism of the great truths of Chris- 



[75] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

tianity. They were taught that " valor was the chief est virtue, 
and most dignified the haver." They were near enough to the 
frontier life of their fathers and to the Revolution to catch, at the 
fireside, stories of the endurance, the skill, and the bravery of 
those who fought Indians — of how Washington commanded and 
Marion rode. Kings Mountain and Yorktown were to them 
places of pilgrimage — the graves of the heroes of the Revolution 
were around them. They had themselves declaimed in every 
schoolhouse from Richmond to Austin the fiery and patriotic 
words of Patrick Henry. 

It was not wonderful, then, that when the South was to be 
invaded — by whom they did not care, for what they did not stop 
to ask — her youth poured out from every schoolhouse, college, 
and university at the first call. 

The log schoolhouses and colleges of the South — Lebanon, La 
Grange, Chapel Hill, Lexington, Nashville, and hundreds of 
others — each gave their all of youth. It was a goodly sight to see 
these handsome boys and young men, full of courage, ardor, and 
ambition, come and offer themselves, their lives, and their for- 
tunes to their beloved land. 

How well they redeemed the off'er can not be told. Their en- 
durance in the cold and weary marches with Jackson in the 
valley, with Bragg in Kentucky; their courage at Manassas, Rich- 
mond, and Chickamauga, all attest that this heredity, climate, and 
other influences had made a race of heroes. The story of Mars 
Chan is a true epic of these days. 

In this outline we have but suggested the genius and pictured 
the character, the prowess, and the perf6rmances of Gen. 
Gordon. 

But it is of him as a man thafi would fain dwell longest and 
most lovingly. 

In his early manhood he was a picture of manly grace and 
bearing. Some 5 feet 8i inches in height, weighing some 140 
pounds, erect and lithe — a face symmetrical in features, but with- 
out a trace of effeminacy, with firmness and decision written in 
every line. His eyes were dark, quickly melting to tenderness at 
another's woes, but on occasions flashing with the suppressed 
lightning of passion. His brown hair, while a soldier, unwit- 
tingly neglected, would sometimes hang in golden brown to his 
shoulders, suggesting the cavalier of the Charles the First age. 



[76] 



Address by Judge L. B. McFarland 



A gallant and distinguished oflicer writes of him as he then 
appeared at the head of his brigade as — 

" The long, curly-haired, young brigadier from Tennessee, of 
dashing field qualities, and handsome personal appearance." 

He was a splendid horseman, witching the world with noble 
horsemanship. Mounted and leading his men to battle he was a 
picture for troubadour song. It was thus he rode in many a con- 
flict. The romance and the history and song of southern litera- 
ture are justly full of the pictures of Stuart and Ashby and 
Forrest, as they rode in battle, but had Gordon been a cavalry- 
man, with their opportunities for single combat and individual 
display, his name would have linked with theirs. 

He was an earnest man. To whatever he was called he de- 
voted himself earnestly and seriously. To him life was earnest — 
life was real. He knew little of society — was too much of a 
monologist, with hobbies, to be entertaining in a drawing-room, 
talked only occasionally and always with force. He was fond of 
books and loved the beautiful in everything; devoted to music, 
and in his early years, like our Bob, played the violin well. 

One of the chief characteristics of his life was his sense of 
and devotion to duty. Whatever he thought it was his duty to 
do he did, like Luther, " though devils block his way." 

Another characteristic was his high sense of honor, or rather 
his sensitiveness to honor. Other men might do things and feel 
no wrong, but from the same acts he would instinctively and 
intuitively shrink. 

His was a soul — 

" To whom dishonor's shadow is a substance 
More terrible than death here and hereafter. 
And who though proof against all blandishments 
Of pleasure and all pangs of pain, are feeble, 
When the proud name on which they pinnacled, 
Their fame is breathed on." 

And woe to the man or men who breathed upon the bright 
escutcheon of his honor. 

His attainments were scholarly, and as a public speaker he was 
animated, forceful, and classic. He was much in demand, and 
was ready on all Confederate occasions and delighted at every 
opportunity for commemorating the virtues and gallantry of 



[77] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

Confederates. His eulogy on the life and services of the great 
commander, Joseph E. Johnston, delivered to an immense audi- 
ence in Memphis, was a masterpiece of power and pathos, and 
a classic oration. 

Another of his chiefest virtues was his earnest and constant 
devotion to his friends. To those virtues of valor and gentleness, 
of sense of duty and practice of virtue, add truth and honesty, 
and we have said it all. No wonder that living he was loved by 
all, and dying his obsequies were an affectionate outpouring of a 
whole people. All felt that this earth that bears him dead bears 
not alive so true a gentleman. 

"With him, as is often the case, death brought a retrospect of 
the dearest aims and strongest emotions of his life, and as the 
fluttering pulse presaged the coming end he was upon the battle 
field among his men again. The serried rank, the charging 
squadron, the waving banners, the rattle of musketry, the roar of 
cannon, and all the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the big war 
were his again, and his last words were, " Send other couriers; 
those may be killed." 

But, comrades, I wish to add in conclusion that his chiefest aim 
in life was to vindicate the justness of the Confederate cause and 
to assist in the perpetuation of the honor and glory of the Con- 
federate soldier. His chiefest ambition was to be your com- 
mander, and his love and devotion to you his intensest emotion. 
The chief purpose of my coming before you to-day was to bring 
you a message from him. His last thoughts were of you. 

While gradually sinking to the Great Beyond his thoughts were 
with you, and he wrote you a last farewell, and that I will read 
to you from his own pencil : 
" To the Federation of United Confederate Veterans, comrades 

and countrymen: 

"About to die, I salute you, and in bidding you a final farewell 
I desire once more to make my profoundest acknoMiedgments and 
to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for the many manifesta- 
tions of your partiality and devotion, evidenced by the many 
honors that you have conferred upon me, and more especially 
for the last profound and exalted distinction with which you 
have crowned me — that of making me your commander in chief. 
I esteem this last expression of your regard and consideration a 
grander and more glorious distinction than all of the combined 



[78] 



Address by Judge L. B. McFarland 



public plaudits, achievements, decorations, and honors of my 
entire life, and for which I would express my thanks and appre- 
ciation from the grave. What patriotic glory can equal that of 
being the commander in chief of the surviving and venerable 
fragments of those brave and heroic Confederate armies who for 
four trying and perilous years maintained their cause against 
odds of more than four to one, and who fought battles and won 
victories when barefooted, ragged, and hungry, and who at last 
were overpowered more by the preponderance of numbers and 
resources than by courage and prowess — more by famine than 
by fighting * * *." 

This last farewell to you was never finished. 

Here, my comrades, the pulse of life throbbed low; his feeble 
hand could write no more, and in a few days his noble spirit 
winged its flight to join again, we hope, his comrades gone be- 
fore, all to await our speedy coming in the great reunion 
hereafter. 



[79] 



Proceedings in the Senate 

Thursday, August 10, 1911. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by J. C. 
South, its Chief Clerk, communicated to the Senate the 
intelligence of the death of Hon. George W. Gordon, late 
a Representative from the State of Tennessee, and trans- 
mitted the resolutions of the House thereon. 

The Vice President. The Chair lays before the Senate 
resolutions from the House of Representatives, which 
will be read. (H. Res. 274.) 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows : 

In the House of Representatives, 

August 10, 1911. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. George W. Gordon, a Representative from the 
State of Tennessee. 

Resolved, That a committee of 18 Members of the House, with 
such Members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to 
attend the funeral. 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be authorized 
and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for carrying 
out the provisions of these resolutions, and that the necessary 
expenses in connection therewith be paid out of the contingent 
fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect this House do now 
adjourn. 

Mr. Taylor. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions I send 
to the desk and ask for their adoption. 

The Vice President. The Senator from Tennessee sub- 
mits resolutions, which the Secretary will read. 

93462°— 13 6 [81] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

The Secretary read the resolutions (S. Res. 133), as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the 
announcement of the death of Hon. George Washington Gordon, 
late a Representative from the State of Tennessee. 

Resolved, That a committee of nine Senators be appointed by 
the Vice President to join the committee appointed on the part of 
the House of Representatives to attend the funeral of the deceased 
at Memphis, Tenn. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives. 

The resolutions were considered by unanimous consent 
and unanimously agreed to. 

The Vice President appointed as the committee on the 
part of the Senate under the second resolution Mr. Tay- 
lor, Mr. Brown, Mr. Shively, Mr. Bradley, Mr. Smith of 
South Carolina, Mr. Jones, Mr. Watson, Mr. Williams, 
and Mr. Thornton. 

Mr. Taylor. I submit an additional resolution. 

The Secretary read the resolution, as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to, and (at 4 
o'clock and 32 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
to-morrow, Friday, August 11, 1911, at 12 o'clock m. 



[82] 



TRIBUTES 



From His Colleagues in Congress 

[R. M. Gates, in the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 10, 1911] 

Washington, D. C, August 9, 1911. 

When Gen. Gordon left here several weeks ago those 
who saw him the day of his departure were seriously 
apprehensive about his condition and gave expression 
to the fear that they would not see him again. He had 
been in failing health for some months, but had, with 
the characteristic heroism of his nature, struggled to keep 
at the post of duty, remaining here to be in the House 
and to miss no obligation as a Representative of his 
people. 

The intelligence of his death was not unexpected, yet 
it was learned with the deepest sorrow, especially among 
Southerners, for whose cause nearly half a century ago 
he ventured all he owned of life and property, and in 
which he distinguished himself brilliantly in the farthest 
front of battle. 

The northern Representatives admired him much and 
warmly, not alone being impressed by the deep affection 
in which he was held by his immediate colleagues from 
Tennessee and other Southern States, but by his unfailing 
gentle courtesy of bearing, his alert gallantry, and his 
fine fidelity to duty when the grievous condition of his 
health would have excused him from all exertion. 

They had become familiar with the story of his dash- 
ing career as a soldier and his nobler heroism as a nurse 
of the sick and a comforter of the dying during the yellow- 



[83] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

fever scourge of Memphis in 1878-79. He is sorrowed 
for as the last of the Confederate brigadier generals to 
serve in the Federal Congress and his death regretted 
deeply as the taking off of one of the worthiest of com- 
manders of Confederate Veterans. 

BY senator TAYLOR 

Senator Robert L. Taylor said to-night of Gen. Gordon : 

I have known Gen. Gordon ever since I was a boy, but I only 
became acquainted with him when I entered the Senate. Before 
then I only knew him as one of the South's bravest and knight- 
liest soldiers of the Civil War. He never knew fear, either in 
battle or in peace. He never knew how to be false to his princi- 
ples or to his people. He was as noble a man as ever lived or 
died. His death is a calamity to his State and to the South, but 
we can not bring him back to life again, for he has " crossed over 
the river " to rest with Stonewall Jackson " under the shade of 
the trees." 

I loved him for his courage, for his honor, and for his loyalty 
to his people. 

He was one of the most industrious men in the Congress of the 
United States and was always conscientious in the discharge of 
every duty. My heart goes out to his sweet wife, who graced 
Washington with her splendid accomplishments and her beau- 
tiful life. Peace to his ashes. 

BY representative GARRETT 

Finis J. Garrett, Representative of the ninth district, 
who was closer to Gen. Gordon than any other Member 
of the Tennessee delegation, said : 

I have been fearing every day since I saw him leave here that 
the news of his death would come. He was weak and suffering 
intensely, but to the very end persisted in overexerting himself 
in the efforts to perform his duty. Perhaps it is not saying too 
much to state that he was literally the victim of his fidelity to 



[84] 



Tributes 

duty. Throughout the last several months he was frail in health, 
but day in and day out, with that same spirit that moved him at 
the Battle of Franklin, he moved with steady purpose in the 
performance of every function. 

I knew him well, and greatly admired him. He possessed 
superb courage, an incisive intellect, and a high ideal of civic 
righteousness. By his death our State and country loses a faith- 
ful, honest, pure public man whom we can ill spare. 



BY SENATOR WILLIAMS 

Senator John Sharp Williams, native of Memphis and 
son of Col. Christopher H. (Kit) Williams, who was killed 
at the head of a Tennessee regiment at Shiloh, in which 
battle Gen. Gordon fought, said to-night of him: 

In war he was of the bravest of the brave. Starting as a pri- 
vate, he rose by constant bravery and fidelity to duty to command 
a brigade of infantry, as fine a force of Tennessee warriors as 
ever charged to the thrill of Dixie and the rebel yell. There 
was scarcely a battle, including Perryville, Shiloh, Corinth, Mur- 
freesboro, all the long Georgia campaign, then into Tennessee at 
Franklin, where he led his troops, charging on horseback across 
the F'ederal breastworks, that he did not share the perils of 
fighting Confederates and bare his bosom to the tempest of 
death. 

He never failed to pay due reverence to the Union dead; as a 
Member of the House of Representatives he never failed to pay 
due reverence to the Confederate dead. He never shirked a duty 
to the South. He never evaded the responsibility to respond to 
any attack upon the South. He was brave in war and in peace. 
He was loyal to the flag he happened to be under, whether the 
flag was the flag of the Confederacy or the flag of the reunion of 
the United States. But, best of anything. Gen. Gordon was a 
gentleman from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet — 
courteous, brave, true, and loyal all the time. 



[85] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 



BY representative MACON 

Robert Bruce Macon, Representative, of Arkansas, who 
boarded at Congress Hall Hotel with Gen, Gordon during 
the latter's membership in Congress, said: 

I have boarded at the same hotel with Gen. Gordon ever since 
he has been in Congress, and found him to be one of the finest 
characters I ever knew. I am sorry to hear of his death, as my 
association with him has been of a most pleasant character. His 
death is a distinct loss to the National Congress, and will be sin- 
cerely deplored by every Member of it. His friends were only 
limited by the membership of the House, and all, I am sure, 
extend to his bereaved wife their sincerest sympathy. He was a 
splendid legislator and always wide-awake in looking after the 
interests of his constituents. His death is not only a loss to Con- 
gress, but to Memphis, the State, the entire South, and the 
country. 



From the United Confederate Veterans Commander 

[The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 12, 1911] 

C. Irvine Walker, lieutenant general commanding, the 
successor to Gen. Gordon through William E. Mickle, 
adjutant general and chief of staff, yesterday issued three 
orders. The first is an announcement of the assumption 
of command of Gen. Walker; the second is an order to 
Maj. Gen. Robert White, commanding the western Vir- 
ginia division, to assume command of the army of the 
northern Virginia department; and the third is the an- 
nouncement that Maj. Gen. John H. McDowell, command- 
ing the Tennessee division, is charged with the prepara- 
tion and arrangement of details of the funeral program 
to be observed by the veterans and extending an invi- 
tation to all Confederate organizations, sons, daughters, 
memorial associations, and veterans of the Union Army 



[8G] 



Tributes 

to be present at the funeral and take part in the burial 
exercises. 
Following is general order No. 1 : 

I. With a heart full of sorrow, the lieutenant general com- 
manding announces the death of the beloved commander in chief 
of our association, George W. Gordon. After a lingering illness 
extending over a year, during which he fought for his life with 
that resolution which was ever characteristic of him in war and 
in peace, his spirit gently passed away at 4 o'clock to-day. 

At the breaking out of the war he entered the service as drill- 
master of the Eleventh Tennessee Infantry, and by close attention 
to the requirements of the service he rose in rank till made 
brigadier general in 1864. He was with his command in every 
engagement except at Bentonville, N. C, at which time he was a 
prisoner of war. 

He was always a leader in whatever he was engaged in, 
whether as lawyer, railway commissioner, commissioner in the 
Interior Department of the United States, superintendent of pub- 
lic schools, or Member of Congress; and to all he undertook he 
gave the best service of his untiring energy and commanding 
abilities. 

He was deeply interested in the work of the United Confed- 
erate Veterans and took a prominent part from its very founda- 
tion. He was devoted to the memories of the sixties, and 
delighted in aiding the fortunes of those who were soldiers in 
the Confederate armies or related to them. He was in every 
way a remarkable man, and the cause will miss his valuable 
guidance. 

II. As the next senior officer to the late Gen. George W. 
Gordon, and in compliance with its by-laws, I hereby assume 
command of the United Confederate Veterans. I call lovingly 
upon all of my comrades to aid me, so that all working har- 
moniously together can carry to even greater glory our grand 
federation and more fully perpetuate its most precious objects 
and memories. 

III. The staff of the late commander in chief is hereby con- 
tinued as the staff of the present lieutenant general commanding, 
and will be obeyed and respected accordingly. 



[87] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

The Statham-Farrell Camp No. 1197, United Confed- 
erate Veterans, of Winona, Miss., and the Neely Chapter, 
United Daughters of the Confederacy, No. 981, of Bolivar, 
Tenn., were among the camps that have already met and 
passed resolutions of sorrow concerning his death. 

The board of education of the city met yesterday and 
passed resolutions of sympathy concerning the death of 
Gen. Gordon and arranged to attend the funeral as a body. 



From Former Gov. Patterson 

[ITie Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 12, 1911] 

Last night at 9 o'clock the Elks, by permission of the 
Confederate Veterans, who have charge of the remains, 
carried out their solemn and impressive ceremony. The 
ceremony was held in Memorial Hall, and one of the 
largest assemblages of the order was present and par- 
ticipated in the rites. 

The memorial address was delivered by former Gov. 
M. R. Patterson, who was succeeded in Congress by Gen. 
Gordon. It was an address of inspiration and made last- 
ing impression upon those who heard him. 

Gov. Patterson spoke as follows: 

Exalted ruler and brother Elks, I have been asked to contribute 
something to these sad and impressive memorial exercises in 
honor of the memory of Gen. Gordon, but neither the time nor 
the occasion will here give opportunity to review his life and 
achievements. 

He was a member of our order, and this alone should entitle 
him to our consideration, but he was also a distinguished citizen 
whose career and fame extended far beyond the boundaries of 
his native State. 

As a young man he slept on tented fields, felt the shock and 
witnessed the glare and ruin of war. He saw a country rent and 
distraught with passions fierce and high; he lived to serve in the 
congress of peaceful days— to see a reunited country, and he died 
among his people, after the sword had been turned into the plow- 

[88] 



Tributes 

share, after the box of Pandora had been closed, when peace, 
plenty and happiness were generously bestowing their blessings 
to a happy land. 

There can be nothing sad about a death like this. 

Gen. Gordon lived beyond the allotted span of human life. He 
was true to his country and himself, and at " sunset and evening 
star" he heard and answered the call as it came clear over the 
waters, with his powers unimpaired, in the plenitude of honor, 
in the esteem and confidence of his fellow man. 

Fortunate indeed is that mortal whose path so winds through 
the dark and impenetrable mysteries which surround us; thrice 
happy is he whose bark goes out to sea as the long sunset of an 
honored life sinks at last in the dense and fast gathering folds of 
night. I repeat, there is no sting in such a death, and the grave 
can claim no victory; but there is much to inspire in the career 
which is now closed forever. 

Gen. Gordon was the last of the Confederate generals in either 
branch of Congress, and it may be said of him that he was a link 
connecting the old South with the new; that old order of civiliza- 
tion, which produced a few really great men, with the modern 
progressiveness whose tendency is to level and fix a standard 
for all. 

Courteous, faithful, and brave, in Gen. Gordon we found that 
now rare and refined type which was trained in the old-fashioned 
school of gentlemen which dignified manhood and shed the glory 
of its refulgent light upon a queenly and peerless womanhood. 
Men such as he gave to the South that peculiar distinction of 
which the arts of trade and the flight of time have not robbed her 
altogether. 

Who standing by the bier of this dead soldier and statesman 
is not thrilled by the moving scenes of the past; who does not 
expand with high and patriotic thought of our country and her 
destiny? Who among us here that does not admire the valor and 
love the memory of those glorious men who followed the match- 
less Lee and men like Forrest and Gordon, who fought as only 
the brave can fight on every field all the way from First Manassas 
to Appomattox? 

Where is he who does not also honor the men on the other side 
who won the fortunes of war in that tremendous conflict? What 
man with soul so warped or dead, so lost to all that is grand in 
war or great in peace, who can not breathe a sigh or shed a tear 

[89] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Gordon 



to think that soon upon this earth there will not be left a man 
who wore the gray or one who wore the blue; that the stars will 
soon look down upon their pathetic dust reunited in the grave? 

And finally, who among us, whether he was born in the North 
or South, in the East or West, whether native to the soil or a 
citizen from choice, whose pulses in this dead presence do not 
thrill with the strains of the national anthem, whose prayer does 
not ascend to heaven for our country, its strength and glory 
forever? 

Here we rededicate ourselves to liberty and law; here we stand 
erect above the dross of petty rivalries, superior to the small 
things which vex the currents of life, aspiring even as the 
ancients did as they approached the famous statue. 

Farewell to Gen. Gordon. He yet lives in death. Sleep, soldier, 
sleep! You have earned the right to rest, and thousands honor 
your name and fame. 



From the Ante-Bellum Slave Association 

As a member and an officer of the association formed for the 
betterment and uplift of the colored people of Memphis I desire 
to contribute my humble tribute to the memory of Gen. George W. 
Gordon. In his death every colored citizen of the South lost a 
valuable friend. He has shown the sincerity of his friendship to 
the colored people in every public act of his life. He has con- 
tributed through me to the support of the organization destined to 
provide for them at a time when old age renders them incapable 
of providing for themselves. He showed the earnestness of his 
friendship for them when he was superintendent of the public 
schools. His work there was of great value to the teachers and 
pupils, and by his force of conduct, honest and upright character, 
he made an impression that will fix his memory in their hearts 
so long as they live. One of the great losses to us is his untimely 
death, which prevented him carrying out the promises of several 
lectures which he had assured us he would give for the benefit of 
the Ante-Bellum Slave Association. I know that all the citizens 
of Memphis join with me in wishing " peace to his ashes." 

Lymus Wallace, 
President of the Ante-Bellum Slave Association. 



[90] 



FUNERAL SERVICES 



[The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 13, 1911] 

Taps, sounded at twilight yesterday evening over the newly 
made grave of Gen. George W. Gordon in Elmwood Cemetery, 
concluded the funeral and burial services that marked the final 
tribute of comrades and friends to the departed leader. 

As the solemn cortege moved from Confederate Hall, winding 
slowly through the city, there came a voluntary lull in the traffic 
of the street; the wheels of commerce stood still and thousands 
gathered along the line of march to view the procession, with 
bared heads and heavy hearts. 

A gentle rain was falling as the procession began, and fore- 
boding clouds added dreariness to the scene, but afforded pro- 
tection to the feeble line of veterans who braved the intensity 
of the midsummer heat to make public acknowledgment of their 
esteem and reverence for the memory of their former comrade. 

From Confederate Hall the procession moved over Adams 
Avenue to Main Street, thence to Linden Avenue, to Third Street, 
and to the Second Presbyterian Church. Hundreds packed the 
building to its capacity to hear the services and the sermon of 
the Rev. R. Lin Cave, of Nashville, who paid a tribute in char- 
acteristic eloquence to the memory of the dead. 

EULOGY BY DR. CAVE 

Dr. Cave's sermon dealt with the virtues of Gen. Gordon, the 
causes of the great outpouring of friends and mourners. He 
dwelt at length on the tenacity with which Gen. Gordon held to 
his convictions and his belief in the southern cause in the war. 

" This funeral," said he, " was planned by him as we are carry- 
ing it out, and I tell you why he desired to be buried in his old 
uniform of gray with his comrades performing the burial 
service, just as he would tell you if he were to rise from the 
coffin and tell you himself. He believed throughout his life in 
the righteousness of the cause of the South, and clinging with 



[91] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

all his conviction and belief in that cause he desired that his 
burial even give evidence that he died with the same opinion." 

Dr. Cave referred to the intimate association which he enjoyed 
with Gen. Gordon and the intimacy of their friendship. He said 
that he would not bring a pang of grief to the widow, but he 
would repeat what he had told her, " that had Gen. Gordon been 
less devoted to his duty, had he been willing to neglect the charge 
of the people and leave Congress for a time in the interest of 
his own health, he would be living to-day. 

" NO DUTY EVER NEGLECTED 

" But I do not say that it would have been better for him. I 
do not believe that it is better that a man should neglect the 
duties and responsibilities that devolve upon him merely that 
he may extend the years of his life. It is a great deal better 
that he should have worn himself out in the service of his 
country than that he should have neglected that duty and pro- 
longed his life for a few years." 

At the conclusion of the church service the military service 
planned to be held at the grave was conducted in the church on 
account of the inclement weather. Col. John P. Hickman, of 
Nashville, secretary of the Tennessee Confederate pension board; 
Gen. W. E. Mickle, of Mobile; Col. V. Y. Cook, of Batesville, Ark.; 
Gen. Bennett H. Young, of Louisville, Ky.; and Gen. John H. 
McDowell, of Collierville, Tenn., led by the Rev. R. Lin Cave, 
conducted the Confederate military service. 

BRIEF SERVICE AT GRAVE 

At the grave the service was very brief. After a song and a 
prayer by Dr. Cave the services ended with a prayer and bene- 
diction by the Rev. L. C. Vass, assistant pastor of the Second 
Presbyterian Church. 

The Rev. A. B. Curry was absent in North Carolina on a vaca- 
tion and could not be located in time to reach the city for the 
funeral. 

The floral tribute was imposing. The pulpit of the church 
was covered and the grave was a veritable mound of flowers. 
Elaborate designs from all parts of the country came by the 
early express, and the floral houses of the city found themselves 
scarcely able to supply the extraordinary demand. 

[92] 



1 



Funeral Services 



The following were pallbearers: 

Active— J. P. Young, W. W. Carnes, L. S. Lake, E. Q. Withers, 
R. E. Bullington, A. R. Taylor, L. D. Scott. 

Honorary — L. B, McFarland, W. J. Crawford, Solon E. Person, 
James E. Beasley, W. B. Mallory, G. B. Malone, R. P. Lake, A. B. 
Hill, C. W. Heiskell, L N. Rainey, Luke E. Wright, Dabney M. 
Scales, J. R. Flippin, G. B. Thornton, S. T. Carnes, E. W. Bourne, 
Wynne Cannon, H. L. Buckingham, John Myers, Frank A. Jones, 
J. M. Greer, H. M. Neely, Henry C. Myers, J. H. Smith, Nicholas 
Williams, A. L. Rowe, J. M. Steen. 

THOUSANDS GATHER FOR FUNERAL 

Long before the hour for leaving Confederate H^all thousands 
had gathered to take part in the ceremonies and witness them. 
Distinguished visitors from every section of the country came to 
attend the services, and probably not in the history of the city 
has there been a more simple or a more profound spectacle. 
Planned after the directions of Gen. Gordon himself, the affair 
was intended to carry out the unpretentious conduct which dis- 
tinguished his life; but the great outpouring of the people, the 
affiliation of the orders, societies, military companies, and insti- 
tutions with which he had been connected, made a monumental 
occasion of impressive solemnity without marring the simplicity 
originally intended. 

Mounted police headed the procession as it filed from the 
courthouse at 3.30 o'clock, followed by a military escort of Com- 
panies E, G, L, and M, and Neely Zouaves and the drum corps 
and pallbearers. Next was the hearse, and following closely 
behind was a horse led by Henry Cousins, an old Confederate 
negro who followed Gen. Mahone throughout the war. Follow- 
ing the riderless horse was the staff of Gen. Gordon; then the 
congressional committee, composed of Senator Robert L. Taylor, 
of Tennessee; Senator John R. Thornton, of Louisiana, Repre- 
sentatives Joseph W. Byrns, Finis J. Garrett, W. C. Houston, L. P. 
Padgett, of Tennessee; Capt. John Lamb, of Virginia; Julius 
Kahn, of California, and N. B. Thistlewood, of Illinois; R. M. 
Gates, the Commercial-Appeal's Washington representative; 
Deputy Sergeant at Arms Willis, of the House of Representatives; 
G. Hervy Rhodes, private secretary to Gen. Gordon, and Col. 
Hanlon, secretary to Representative Cox, of Indiana. Then 

[93] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

appeared the old veterans, with faltering footsteps, followed 
closely by the Sons of Veterans, the ladies' associations, junior 
associations,^ and Daughters of the Confederacy, and a long line 
of carriages and automobiles of the public. 

MANY FROM A DISTANCE 

Gen. John H. McDowell was in charge of the arrangements, 
the line of march and the formation, and the entire program 
was carried out without the slightest incident to distract from 
the occasion. 

Among those who attended the funeral from a distance were: 
Col. V. Y. Cook, of Batesville, Ark,; Gen. Bennett H. Young, of 
Louisville, Ky.; Col. John P. Hickman, of Nashville; Judge S. F. 
Wilson, member of the Court of Civil Appeals of Tennessee and 
former commander of the Tennessee division, Confederate Vet- 
erans; Senator J. P. Matthews, of Oakland, Tenn.; Judge H. P. 
Hopson, of Somerville, Tenn.; C. Irvine "Walker, of New Orleans, 
lieutenant general of the Confederate Veterans; "William E. 
Mickle, of Mobile, adjutant general and chief of staff; and Gayle 
Kyle, of Rogersville, Tenn., a member of Gen. Gordon's staff. 

At a meeting of the former principals of the public schools 
under Gen. Gordon and others associated with him in the school 
work, held yesterday, resolutions of sympathy were presented by 
Prof. N. M. Williams and were adopted. Miss L. C. Burke 
presided over the meeting. 

At the meeting of the negro teachers resolutions were adopted 
and practically the entire body of negro teachers attended the 
meeting. 



I94J 



SENTIMENT " 



[Editorial from the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 13, 1911] 

" Off guard, their warrior souls 
Will never rise in ranks again 
Till God shall call the muster rolls." 

(Lines from a poem by Margaret Preston. They were over the gateway of 
the Hollywood Cemetery at Richmond in 1865.) 

After the procession which followed the last march of Gordon 
through the streets of this city had passed, an old Confederate 
soldier, who had fought in all the battles of Virginia, came to 
this office and quoted these lines, and he said: "I am full of 
sentiment to-day. We fought the war on a glorious sentiment. 
Sentiment inspired the splendid tribute to Gordon's memory." 

To military experts and to philosophers of history the Confed- 
erate army presents some most interesting studies. A military 
man who measures the fighting qualities and the forces of an 
army takes into consideration, first, the leadership of men, then 
the cause for which they are fighting; but, most of all, he con- 
siders the resources. He measures the quantity and the quality 
of the guns, the quantity and the quality of the food, the trans- 
portation facilities, and the money. 

The Confederacy supply of arms was limited. The resources 
of the Confederacy diminished every day from the victory of 
Bull Run down to Appomattox. At the beginning the Confed- 
eracy had the money of its own people, but because of the 
blockade there was no chance of adding to the wealth of the 
country from the outside. Crops were diminished because many 
of the tillers of the soil were away in the trenches. After the 
raw material was manufactured into guns there were no more to 
be had except those captured from the enemy, and yet for four 
years an army, numbering 200,000 to 300,000 men, was in the 
field, and scarcely a day passed that there was not a collision. 

Blockaded from the beginning, cut off from communication 
with the outside world, outnumbered in men and physical 
resources, according to all the laws of war the Confederacy 
should have collapsed in 18 months. Its supply of gold and 

[95] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Gordon 

silver was quickly exhausted; its credit was only with its own 
people. The commissary and quartermaster's departments, un- 
der modern viewpoint, would have been pronounced entirely 
inadequate within a year, and yet in the third year of the strug- 
gle Lee's matchless veterans rolled the tide of war out of Vir- 
ginia, across Maryland, until it broke on the hills of Pennsylvania. 

In 1864 the Confederate army in Virginia on the defensive was 
as strong as it was on the offensive in 1863. 

In 1864, three years after the " cannon's opening roar " at 
Sumter, after the Mississippi had been captured, after the Con- 
federacy was cut in two, the army was still a dangerous foe. 

Sherman consumed all the spring and the summer in going 
from Chattanooga to the outworks of Atlanta — a distance of 150 
miles. His journey was disputed at every pass and at the cross- 
ing of every river. Occasionally, under the brilliant leadership 
of Johnston, the Confederates made a stand in the open and shot 
away the head of Sherman's oncoming forces. 

Atlanta was not captured until after a siege, and then came 
the strangest of all events in this strange war. The Confederacy 
was in its death struggle. The last available man was in the 
field. There was none to take the place of the killed and 
wounded. Old men, lean in shank, who should have been at home 
supported by the strong arms of their sons and grandsons, and 
little boys, who ordinarily would have trembled in the darkness, 
filled the ranks that had been reduced by the killing of sons and 
fathers. 

•The Confederacy had no allies. No knightly nation raised a 
hand and in the name of humanity forbade further slaughter. 
With poor guns, poor ammunition, with little food, a few medical 
supplies, without hope of final victory, the spirit of war in the 
shortening days of November blazed up, and an army started 
from Atlanta to invade the North. The rush northward could not 
be halted in Georgia, nor in Alabama. The force swept across 
the Tennessee River like a flaming meteor. 

The captain generals of the opposing army could not under- 
stand. They only knew they had seen this same spirit when 
they faced Pickett's division at Gettysburg, charging into certain 
destruction, and going down to death with the exalted exuberance 
of youth going to a marriage feast. 

The first collision occurred at Franklin. Franklin was not a 
battle according to the rules of war. It was the triumphant 

[96] 



Sentiment 



struggle of an exhausted army, determined to end it all in a great 
victory or in death. The Federal Army ought to have won 
Franklin. Schofield should have held his ground. He would 
have won had he been fighting with merely trained soldiers, but 
Schofield was fighting men animated by an unconquerable 
sentiment. 

And sentiment kept the life in the Confederacy two years after 
it might have perished. 

Sentiment made it so that men withstood hunger and disease 
and wounds. 

Sentiment was the tonic that made the Confederate soldier 
something more than a man, lower only than divinity. 

Sentiment enabled Cleburne to ride into the fire-belching 
throats of the guns of the enemy and to embrace death as a 
brother. 

Sentiment, which is unselfish devotion to a principle, animated 
Gordon when he went into the frontal and cross-fire which 
ended, miraculously, not in his death, but in his capture. 

This is an age of material things. In some parts of this 
country men look only to dollars and cents, to cost price and to 
selling price, to acres and to square feet. Some men measure 
reputation only by material success, and the standard of material 
success is dollars and cents. We are drifting in the direction of 
a sordid view of things ourselves. But the grandest successes in 
life are not material successes. 

According to modern rules, Gordon himself was not a con- 
spicuous success, but he had riches that all the wealth of the men 
who own the steel mills, and the railroads, and the banks could 
not buy. He had the afi"ections of his fellow soldiers, he had the 
respect of his fellow citizens, and he had the veneration of us 
younger ones so fortunate as to know him. 

He had served his country with an unselfish, unfaltering 
devotion, and he died with honor unscarred, and with his repu- 
tation stainless, and he accomplished the living of this pure life 
because he was animated always by a lofty and noble sentiment. 

The same sentiments that animated his lofty soul were in the 
breast of every loyal Confederate soldier, and because of this 
quality of heroism the Confederacy was sustained in victory 
until it was crushed under an overwhelming force. 



93462° — 13 7 [97] 



[7r 



■^^Js 



^ 



